ihtavii of §(in(\xt$$. 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ANTIDOTE 



TO THE 



• MERINO =MANI A 

•* • 

XOW PROr.RESSIJCG THROUGH THE 

UNITED STATES J 

OR, 

THE VALUE OF 

THE MERINO BREED, 

PLACED -BY OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE, 
^ UPON A PROPER BASIS. 



LOOK BEFORE YOU LEJP 



PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. & A. Y. HUMPHREYS, 

't;HAXGE-WALK, \^ 

Corner. of Second and Walnut-streets. 

PHILJDELFJIL}. 
1810. 




ADVERTISEMENT. 



THE objecl of the present pt4hUcation, is not to damp the ardour of 
the public in the extension of the Meritio breed of Sheep lateh intro- 
duced i\ito different parts of America from Spain // is a point' of too 

great importance to the manufaElures of our country^ to thwart the tide 
of successful experiment^ in nvhich so many are at present engaged....But 
assuredly) something is also due to those individuals^ ivho^ by suddenly 
taking vp a subject^ hitherto so little attended tOy and on nvhich so little, 
is consiquently, practically known amongst us, without the cautious in- 
formation of persons in other parts of the world, may risk unnecessarily 

their frtunes, without adequately benefitting the community at large 

Under these impressions, perceiving the Merino Mania that is spread- 
ing armnd, it must be of consequence to have a knoivledge of the real im- 
portance and value of the subjeB under consideration ; and the Editor 
cannot but think he is doing essential service to his country, in thus giving 
a detail of the experience of Dr. Parry and others, ivhose communications 
have received the sanBion of the British Board of Agriculture. 

We have heard it stated, that 500, 1000, and even 1 500 dollars, 

have been given for a Merino ram atid that cloth from the Merino 

nuool, has been sold at 14 and 15 dollars per yard. The present publi- 
cation will evince if these prices are not beyond all limits of propriety, 
and whether the business thus carried on, is not likely to degenerate into 
a mere system of speculation, which, ivhilst it benefits a few, will bring 
ruin to thousands. It is said that Gold itself may be bought too dear.... 
and experience will soon determine if the present prices of these animals, 
are not also beyond the mark.* 



* On this point, the reader may consult the very candid observations of Mv, 
Livingston, at p. 137'-147', he. of his Essay on Slieep. 



iV ADVERTISEMENT. 

It is not the inanufaBure of a few pieces of broad cloth of equal or 
superior quality to any imported, which is to benefit the country, f it is 
to be held out at a price far beyond the purses of the community. Where 
one person can, or, from a false pride of wishing to equal his far more 
affluent neighbour, at an evident injury to his family, chuses, to give such 

a price, which goes to benefit, not the public, but a few individuals 

hundreds must be content with an inferior texture. If we can sell broad 
cloth of the first quality, and of our own make, at a price considerably 
lower than that wjmh the English commands. ...then indeed we may hope 

to ste our Woollen Manufactures flourish through the Union but it is 

absurd to expecl, that patriotism will induce our citizens to give more for 
any thing than it is aclually worth.,..especially as none are hereb'j benefit- 
ted but speculators and monopolists. 

Dr. Parry's comrMnicalions are particularly valuable his long ac- 
quaintance with the suhjeB, and the extended view he has taken of it, 
certainly entitle him to every credit. The merit of his work, acquired for 

him the premium offered by the Society a Society formed of ever) class of 

persons, calculated to advance a perfeEl knowledge of the different subjeBs 
to -ivhich they call the public attention And it is more particularly use- 
ful at present, by proving that the first cross from the Merino -am, at 
least that produced with the Ryeland ewe, is equally or more proper for 
the extension ofthe fine woolled sheep, than the pure Merino itselj, which 

retards the period at which the fieece becomes of the utmost value If 

our own ewes, especially those of Smith's Island, so highly esteemed by 
Mr. Cnstis, are not deemed adequate to advance this importcnt end; 
certainly some of the Ryeland ewes might be introduced from the British 
fiocks. 

The Editor 'l?as introduced the different papers, without curtailing them 
as he conceives the observations both of the authors and of their re- 
viewers, will prove beneficial to the praElical reader A few facts, 

picked up in other parts of the same work, are added, from their impor- 
tance. And although the observations of Dr. Parry, ^c. are more 
peculiarly calculated for the meridian of Great Britain, yet they will 
serve greatly to enlighten our own citizens, who may chuse to engage in 
this particular obje£l'. 



AN ESSAY 

ox THE NATURE, PRODUCE, ORIGIN, * 

AND EXTENSION OF 

THE MERINO BREED OF SHEEP. 

P.Y CALEB fULLVR PARRY, M.D. F.R.S. &c. 

* Comminucutiuns to the Board of .Igrictdtitre, Vol. V. Part II. 



THE Board of Agriculture having offeree] a premium for "The 
best essay on the growth of wool from the Spanish breed 
of sheep, or from some cross between the Spanish and British 
breeds in Great Britain, which shall include a detail of experi- 
ments made, with a full explanation of the advantages which majr 
have attended them in respedt of wool, carcase, application of 
food, freedom from distempers, cross in the breed, &c. and which 
shall point out the most effective means of spreading this race of 
sheep;" the premium was adjudged to Dr. Parry for the present 
Essay. 

The author prefaces his subje£l by observing, that he is indebt- 
ed to many foreign publications for the greater part of the histo- 

* The following' Piquet's on the Nature, Produce, Origin, and Extension of 
the Merino Breed of Sheep, now fast introducing into this Country, are the 
siihstance^of several Communications hitely made to the British Board of Agri- 
culture ; and are extracted from a celehrated periodical publication, entitled, 
"Retrospect of Philosophical, Mechanical, Chemical and Ag-ricultural Disco- 
veries, &c. &.C." 

A 



ry of the Merino breed of sheep, and acknowledges his obliga- 
tions to the writings of Bourgoanne, Pidlet, andLasteyrie, in par- 
ticular; and he states, that by means of an apparatus obtained 
from Messrs. Jones, the opticians, he has been able to make a very 
accurate admeasurement of many specimens of wool, the result of 
which he has thrown into a supplement, annexed to the treatise. 
That the importance of the question, submitted by the Board, 
may be more fully estimated, he has devoted one chapter to the 
^quantity and value of supertine wool imported into England from 
foreign countries. That the quantity may be ascertained from 
undoubted authority, he has availed himself of an account pre- 
sented to Parliament, of wool purchased in foreign countries in 
180'2, 1803, and 1804. In these three years were imported from 
Spain 16,98b,644lbs. from Holland 4d3,400lbs. from Portugal 
400,72Slbs. from Gibraltar 288,ii74lbs. from France 252,222lbs. 
from Germany 122,150lbs. from America 10,.567lbs. from Prus- 
sia 3,357ibs. and from Denmark 38 libs, making a total of nearly 
18 millions and a half of pounds, of which nearly 15 millions and 
a half were ifnp:)rted in Spanish or neutral vessels, and the re- 
mainder in English vessels. His inquiries among the clothiers 
have enabled him to state the value of this quantity to be as fol- 
lows : 

Sheep's wool, marked R (finest lbs. £. 

sort) 12,000,000, at 6s. 3,600,009 

Ditto, marked F (second sort) 2,000,000, at 5s. 500,000 

Ditto, marked T (third sort) 1,127,020, at 4/. 6^. 25:^,579 

Ditto, marked K (fourth sort) 14,920, at Ss, 2,238 

Lamb's wool 165,778, at 4j. 3r/. 35,227 



In foreign vessels quantity 1 5, 307, 7 18lbs. value ^4,39 1,044 

In English vessels quantity 3,160,000lbs. 

vai lie according to the same proportions, for it 

could not be ascertained ------ ^^906, 449 

These accounts give the annual average of Spanish wool import- 
ed as exceeding 6,i55,9061bs. weight, and the annual average va- 
lue as upwards of ^1,560,000 stetling. 

In the next succeeding chapter he proceeds to describe theMe- 
rin ' breed of sheep, which produce this valuable article of im- 
portation. Their native country is Spain: the number of them in 



that country is about five millions : they are divided into two 
sorts; those which travel from one part of the country to another, 
■which are called " Trashumantes;" and those which remain al- 
ways in the same pastures, named '* Estantes." The animal is 
described below the middle size, in comparison with English 
breeds, not very unlike the Ryeland, or old Southdown breed, 
and by no means furnished with that form, which modern fashion 
has presumed to be inseparably connedled with a disposition 
to early maturity and fatness. And though individuals differ 
much in these respects, yet the Merino sheep have generally their 
heads large and their necks long, their chests contracted, and 
being sharp on the shoulders and flat sided, and narrow across the 
loins. Against these defeats, however, are to be adduced the pe- 
culiar quality of the skin, which is remarkably thin, soft, and 
loose, affording that evidence of a strong disposition to fatten, 
which many of our farmers call proof; the skin also differs from 
that of the native sheep of Britain, in being of a fairer hue, with 
a vivid tint of what is called carnation, or flesh colour, which tint 
is particularly conspicuous on those parts which are free from wool, 
as the eyelids and lips. With this peculiar condition of the skin 
he considers to be connected the peculiar characteristic of the 
Merino race; namely — its fir)eness and flexibility ; in which the 
Merino is superior to every other race of sheep in the world. 
This breed is literally buried in wool ; it exists on their fore- 
heads almost to the eyes, and on the cheeks, and entirely 
covers their bellies and legs. The length of the staple or fila- 
ments of the wool is from two to more than three inches; the 
wool of the ram coarsest and longest, of the ewe finest and short- 
est ; of the wedder, in both respe«Sts, between the two former. 

It is stated from the publication of M. Lasteyrie, that the ave- 
rage weight of the fleece, unwashed, is about 51bs. 7oz. English 
weight ; but in the Compte rendu a la Classe des Sciences of Pa- 
ris for 1802, 30 fleeces, recently imported, are said to have 
weighed, unwashed, 99 kilogrammes and a half, which is equal to 
71b 5{ oz. English, for the weight of each. This wool, however, 
was of thirteen months growth. Dr Parry considers the weight, 
quoted from Lasteyrie, to be equal to the average of ewes' fleeces, 
and that it is probable the medium weight of rams' fleeces, in 
Spain, does not exceed seven pounds; though there is certainly 
great difference in the weight of particular fleeces. 

The principal Merino flocks are then enumerated, both those 
belonging to the grandees and to the different societies of monks, 



which compose the corporation of the Mesta. The size of the 
Nigrette is stated to be superior ; but it is said, that the race of the 
Escurial is supposed to have the finest wool of all. 

The difference between different flocks of Merino sheep, in 
Spain, and between different individuals of the same flock, is re- 
ferred to the proportion of the grease, or yolk, which imbues all 
wool, but pre-eminently that of the Merino. From its superabun- 
dance in this particular breed, the fleece contrails, near its sur- 
face, a quantity of dust, earth, and other matters, so as to give the 
animal a dirty appearance; which usually is most manifest on the 
finest fleeces, as they contain the greatest quantity of yolk, or 
grease; but notwithstanding this darkness on the surface, the 
wool when drawn asunder, nearer the skin, has a brilliant silky 
appearance, and, when scoured, is of the purest white. 

The fleece is not washed tor sale on the sheep's back, but after 
the wool is sorted ; and usually loses three fifths of its weight in 
the operation, and some authors assert that the loss is often two 
thirds; and afterwards, in scouring by the clothier, an additional 
loss is sustained of about three, or tliree and a half, in twenty; 
but as the quantity of the yolk is different not only in difi'erent 
individuals, but in the sanie indivitiual at different seasons, tlie 
loss in washing and scouring will proportionally vary. 

It is remarked that the yolk of v/ool, here spoken of, has not 
escaped the notice of the French chemists : by an analysis of this 
substance by Vauquelin, published in the Annales de Chimie, it 
is found to contain a large proportion of fatty matter united with 
potash, so as to form a natural soap; a smallt-r quantity of potash, 
combined partly with carbonic, partly wirh acetous, and partly 
with muriatic acid; a little lime, in a state of unknown comhina- 
tion ; a small quantity of uncombined fatty substance ; and a little 
animal matter which seems to produce the peculiar waxy smell : 
this yolk is supposed to be formed from the perspiration of the 
animal. 

The wool of Merino sheep is aho said to differ from that of all 
our native breeds, in bting nearly of an equal fineness on the 
shoulder and the rump, though it grows more thickly on the latter 
part; and the whole fleece is remarkably free from those coarse 
hairs, usually styled snitchel hairs, or cats' hairs; and the wool of 
the lambs is much coarser and harder than that of the sheep. The 
sheep themselves are longer in coming to maturity than most 
other breeds; they do not acquire their full growth till three years 
old, and the ewes rarely take the ram till they are eighteen or 



twenty months old, though the rams are fit for generation in a 
year: but the most striking particular in which the Merino race 
differs from every breed of short-woolled sheep, either in this or 
other countries, is, that while very few of the rams are polled, or 
have short snags, the majority have large spiral horns; and on the 
other hand, a horned Merino ewe is rarely to be found. The rams 
and ewes form separate flocks, in Spain, till the beginning of Ju- 
ly, from whence they are suffered to continue together till the 
middle of August; one ram is generally allotted to twenty or twen- 
ty-five ewes. The ewes seldom produce more than one lamb at 
a birth, and seldom more than a fourth of these are permitted to 
be raised; the remainder are killed immediately as they are drop- 
ped, and by transferring the skin to another lamb, the mother is 
induced to adopt it, so that each lamb has two and sometimes 
three nurses. As the ewe-lambs are mostly preserved, the ram- 
lambs are but few, and are very rarely castrated : the wedders are 
rams on whom this operation has been performed at six or seven 
years of age, when they are no longer fit for propagation. So lit- 
tle are these sheep considered an article of food, that though im- 
mense flocks of them pass through or near Madrid twice every 
year, the mutton of that capital is supplied from Africa, as the 
beef and pcvk are from the neat cattle and pigs of France. 

In the winter, the Merino flocks cover the plains of the fertile 
provinces of Valentia, Murcia, Arragon, Castile, La Mancha, An- 
dalusia, Estremadura, and the neighbourhood of Cadiz; but when 
the herbage is wasted by the increasing heat of the sun, which ge- 
nerally happens in April or the beginning of May, the flocks com- 
mence their journies to the mountains of Leon, Castile, Navarre, 
Arragon, Segovia, Burgos, the Asturias, and other elevated dis- 
tricts. These journies are conducted with much order, and are 
minutely described in the Essay. During this journey the shear- 
ing takes place : when the weather is fine, the sheep are condud:ed 
to the esquileos, or shearing- houses, which are usually on the 
mountains near the roads ; they are kept for a day previous in a 
sudadeos, or sweating-house, in which they are so crowded as to 
have scarce room to move, or even to breathe ; and though this 
practice has for its pretended object an increased facility of shear- 
ing, yet it is probably meant to augment by perspiration the 
weight, and consequently the price of the fleece. One with ano- 
ther each man shears fifteen sheep in a day ; and if by accident 
the skin is wounded, they drop on the part a little powdered char- 
coal to heal the wound and guard it against the fly. AVhen the 



10 

fleeces are shorn, they are put into a damp warehouse, all the 
doors and windows of which are closely shut, so as not to admit 
any transmission of vapour ; and this warehouse is not opened till 
the merchant comes to weigh the fleeces. The Spanish flocks 
occasionally suffer much from shearing ; and that of the Count del 
Campo Alange is reported to have lost five or six thousand in a sin- 
gle night. The shearing lasts three or four weeks, after which 
the sheep proceed on their journey, and remain on the mountains 
till the return of winter, when they are driven back again to the 
plains. It is customary to give all the sheep in Spain, whether 
Trashumantes or Estantes, a small quantity of salt, but the former 
have it only when in the mountains. 

The wool in sorting is divided into four parts : the first, which 
is called by the Spaniards refina, or floreta, and which is marked 
R, is taken from the flanks, the back as far as the tail, the shoul- 
ders,^ and sides of the neck; — the second, or fina, marked F, com- 
prises the wool of the top of the neck, the haunches as far as the 
line of the belly, and the belly itself; — the third, tercera, marked 
T, is that of the jaws, the throat, the breast, the fore legs to the 
knees, and the hinder thighs from the line of the belly down to 
the hocks ; — the fourth, or cahidas, marked K or C, is that below 
the hocks, between the thighs, the tail, the buttocks, the pole, and 
behind the ears, and all that which shakes out of the fleece in 
shearing or in washing. A set of bags, containing the whole of 
the first three sorts, is called a pile, the proportion of which many 
years ago was R 1 5 parts, F 4, and T I ; the profit arising from 
the sale of the cahidas, or fourth sort, is said to be allotted for the 
consolation of souls in purgatory. When the wool is sorted it is 
reduced by washing in hot water to the state in which it is import- 
ed into this country. 

Of the five millions of sheep in Spain, the estantes, or station- 
ary part, are said to be about one tenth; and though there is in 
Spain, as in England, a prepossession in favour of the effect of tra- 
velling on the fleece, which the great proprietors encourage, yet 
it is asserted, on the authority of Bourgoanne and Lasteyrie, that 
several of the stationary flocks yield wool equal in excellence to 
the best of the Trashumantes ; in Estreuiadura and Segovia there 
are flocks which never travel, the wool of which is not inferior to 
that of the other sort. 

The diseases to which the Merino breed is chiefly subject, in 
Spain, are said to be the scab, giddiness, and an eruptive infect us 
disorder, like the small-pox, fortunately unknown in England, and 



11 

♦ 

for which we have no name. The Spanish shepherds do not em- 
ploy any remedies worthy of notice for the cure of these maladies, 
unless it be of importance to announce, that, when other means 
fail, they have recourse to magic. 

Every thing respedling the maintenance of the flocks of Spain, 
as well Merinos as others, is directed by a code of laws called the 
Mesta, which first received the sanftion of government about the 
year 145(). 

The author proceeds to state, that he has looked in vain into 
writers for any plausible explanation of the name Merino, or any 
authentic history of the origin or introdudlion of the race itself. 
By some, he observes, it is attributed to England, and supposed to 
be derived from the Cotswold breed ; but from an inquiry into 
the quality of English wool, cloth, and sheep, from the earliest 
times to the latter end of the seventeenth century, which is extend- 
ed over a considerable number of pages, he is of opinion that the 
Merino breed was not derived from Britain. It is also given as 
the opinion of the best informed writers, in which Dr. Parry him- 
self concurs, that they were not originally brought from Africa, 
though this is strongly maintained by a writer in the French Ency- 
clopedic, who boldly asserts that this race was formed about the 
time of the Emperor Claudius, from importntions of African rams, 
by Columella, uncle to the celebrated agriculturist of that name. 
That the Encyclopedist was evidently mistaken is proved by a quo- 
tation from the seventh book of Columella's Treatise De Re Rus- 
tics ; it appears, however, that the Roman agriculturist tried ma- 
ny experiments to obtain fine-wooUed coloured lambs, by coupling 
coarse-coloured rams, which he obtained from Africa, with white 
fine-wooUed ewes ; but it does not follow from his words (in agros 
transtulit) that Columella placed those rams on any lands of his 
in Spain. Dr, Parry thinks it much more probable, even from 
the words themselves, as well as from the nature of his objeft, that 
he brought them into the Roman territories inltiilv, where there 
was abundance of the •• oves molles," the " oves teniae," which 
were chiefly valued for fine white wool. For among the Romans 
all ranks oi people, oi both sexes, wore chiefly wooiien garments, 
a pound of silk, even in the reign of Aurelian, at the close of the 
third century of the Christian era, being, according to Vopiscus, 
equal in value to a pound of gold. And when the pre eminence 
in wealth, and the prevailing vanity of the Romans are consider- 
ed, and since the heat of Italy is so great at certain seasons of the 
year, as scarcely to aduiit the use of a woollen dress, the Do^Stor is 



12 

of opinion, that the quality of the wool must have been a matter 
especially important, since, during the Augustan age, and for a 
considerable time afterwards, it was the fashion to wear cloth fur- 
nished with a nap or pile. It is recalled to the recollection of the 
reader, that Varro, Columella, Pliny, Martial, Palladius, Petro- 
nius, and Calpurnius Siculus, agree in stating that the sheep which 
produced the finest wool in the Roman dominions, were those of 
Apulia and Calabria. A pound avoirdupois of this wool is stated 
to have cost about 1/. Is. Id. of our money. And even at this 
time, according to Pliny, and some other ancient authors, Spain 
was not without valuable breeds of sheep, which were memorable 
for bearing fleeces naturally of different tints. Columella speaks 
of them as bearing blackish or tawny coloured fleeces \ Pliny, who 
lived somewhat after him, adds, that they were occasionally of a 
reddish or gold colour, like those of Asia, and Martial compares 
them with the golden or red hair of women. The opinion of 
Strabo, with respedl to the Portuguese sheep, is then examined, 
and it is clearly made out, that the wool of them was more like 
hair, and incapable of being manufa6lured into cloth with a nap 
or pile. The historians of Spain, who had been diligently con- 
sulted for the purpose, afforded him no information on the sub- 

jea 

From all these circumstances he concludes, that however the 
notion of the English origin of the Merino breed of sheep may 
serve to flatter the national pride, yet that it falls to the ground as 
soon as it is investigated ; and also that it is not more probable that 
tlie race was introduced into Spain from Barbary, as asserted by 
the French Encyclopedists: but, adverting again to the attention 
which the Romans paid to their sheep, and particularly to the 
breed, which, from producing the fine short \vool, was much va- 
lued, and the objedl of peculiar care on that account, he thinks it 
probable that the race of short-woolled sheep of the ancient Ro- 
mans, and the present race of Merino sheep of Spain, are the 
same. For the perfection of both these breeds, he observes, seems 
to have consisted in certain common qualities. " The favourite 
ewe of ancient Italy was to have a large carcase, capacious belly, 
short legs ; and the ram a wide breast, shoulders and buttocks, a 
long and deep body, and a broad and long tail. The fleece was 
to be thick, soft, and deep, especially about the neck and shoul- 
ders. It seems to have been with a view to the increase of wool, 
on this finest part of the animal, that the Romans thought along 
neck valuable in the ewes : the ears and forehead of the rams were 



13 

to be involved in wool, and no individual of either sex was tole- 
rated of which the wool did not clothe the whole belly. Regard 
•was also had to the horns : it is a niemorab'e circumstance in 
these sheep, that the rams had generally horns, and the ewes 
none; still however the polled rams were most esteemed." — "It 
is impossible for any one who reads this description," says Dr. 
Parry, " and who is acquainted with the improved Merino race of 
the present day, not to suspecl that they are one and the same 
breed." 

He then proceeds to investigate evidence as to this fact : he 
observes, that throughout Europe, as far as he knows, there is not 
any short-woolled breed besides the Merinos existing, except in 
Italy, of which the males are horned and the females not : that in 
former times the sheep of Apulia and Calabria had their difl'erent 
summer and winter quarters, the same as the Merinos now have in 
Spain; It was also the universal practice among the Romans to 
give salt to their sheep, with a view to promote appetite and 
thirst, to increase milk, and to improve digestion ; and he can 
hardly believe that this practice, which still subsists in Italy, 
should, from time immemorial have found its way into Spain, and 
into that country only, except by immediate communication ; and 
as the Spanish flocks are frequently led by goats in the present 
day, so it appears, from 'fibuUus, this was a common usage among 
the Romans. Dogs follow the flocks in Spain as well as in most 
other countries; they are however not intended, as in England, 
France, and most other European districts, to assist the shepherd 
in guiding and regulating the sheep, but are of a strong and fierce 
kind, serving to guard and protect both against the depredations 
of robbers and beasts of prey : so also dogs were kept by the Ro- 
mans for the same purposes, the qualities, uses, and treatment of 
which are minutely described by Varro and Columella. Many of 
these instances, it may be said, may have been coincidences of 
practice, suggested by similarity of circumstances, but could not 
have been the reason why, in order to avoid variegated fleeces in 
the offspring, both nations should exclude ram.s with spotted 
mouths or tongues from the privilege of breeding; a practice 
which is stated to have prevailed among the Romans, upon the 
authority of Varro and Columella, and to be adhered to by the 
modern Merino shepherds, on the authority of Lasteyrie. A still 
more remarkable coincidence is noticed, which is the practice of 
killing a considerable number of lambs very shortly after they are 
dropped. This custom prevailed equallv with the Romans as it 
B 



does with the present Spaniards, and precisely from the same 
motives : — that as the wool only was the valuable produce of the 
flock, each lamb might acquire more strength by having two 
nurses. 

This agreement then in so many important particulars of form, 
fleece, constitution, and general treatment, satisfies the author of 
the essay beyond all reasonable doubt, that the present Merinos 
are the same race as the ancient Tarentme sheep of Apulia; yet 
he can find no evidence of the tia:ie v.hea thty wtrt' first introdu- 
ced into Spain. For though the union of Italy and Spain first 
took place under Frederick, king of Arragon and Sicily, about the 
beginning of the fourteenth century, yet it is not in Arragon that 
the best Merino sheep are now found ; and the author conceives 
that the circumstances of the history of Spain would rather in- 
duce a belief that their introduction took place at a more remote 
period than 1300: he leans to the idea of their having existed in that 
country during the dominion of the rich, industrious, and luxuri- 
ous Moors, if not in still earlier times, when Spain was under sub- 
jection to Rome. 

Dr. Parry, having thus completed his observations on the nature, 
produce, and origin of the Merino breed of sheep, concludes the 
first part of his essay by remarks on the extension of the race to 
various parts of the world. 

The Swedes are stated to be the first nation in Europe, who im- 
ported Merino sheep with a view to naturalize them ; though the 
most northern part of this country is burnt up during a short 
summer by a sun which never sets fur many days, and the whole 
is desolated by a winter of seven or eight months, during which 
the ground is covered with uninterrupted snow. Notwithstand- 
ing this it is stated, that M. Alstroemer introduced a flock of 
Merino shelp into Sweden in 1723, and that under his direction 
the government instituted a school of shepherds in 1739, and 
granted bounties of 25 per cent, to the sellers of fine and good 
wool; these, however, were reduced to 15 per cent, in I7bl, to 
19 per cent, in 1786, and in 1792 were wholly discontinued. 
The Merino Sheep now in Sweden are estimated at 100,000, or 
about one twenty fifth part of the sheep of the country, and the 
wool is in every resjject equal to that in Spain ; the size of the 
animal has in tnany cases degenerated, but the wool produce has 
proporiionaily increased ; and the Swedes raise at present in their 
own country nearly as much fine wool as is sufficient for their 
manufactures. The more attentive cultivators lodge their sheep 
during the whole year in large airy buildings, the windows of 



15 

which are always open, and the doors made of hurdles; and thcr 
are driven out twice in the day ; the daily allowance of food given 
to each is two English pounds of hay, with an addition of dried 
leaves of trees, stalks of the hop, pe^ise haulm, and oar and barley 
straw ; but many only house them at night for security against the 
wolf and the lynx. The sheep are allowed *alt in damp or rainy 
weather; and the shearing takes place in July, the sheep having 
been p/cvionsly washed : the average weight of well washed ewes' 
fleeces is given at full three pounds, and of lambs' fleeces at one 
pound. 

The Danes first carried Merino sheep from Sweden in 1789, a 
few descendants of which remain ; and in 1797 the government 
of Denmark imported 300 sheep from Spain, from the celebrated 
breeds of the Escurial, Gaudaloupe, Paular, Infantado, Montano, 
and Negrette : these were placed at Esserum, eight leagues from 
Copenhagen, and were all alive, except two, eighteen months 
afterwards, when they were seen by M. Lasteyrie. They are 
kept in airy houses, and ied with hay, or rye and oat straw cut 
into chafF; they arc fed three times a day with an allowance in 
the whole of 3 i pounds of dry food, and in warm weather are sent 
out into enclosed pastures without a shepherd : salt is given them 
in wet weather, and some persons give them the heads of salt her- 
rings, or the brine which has been used for pickling meat or fish ; 
the lambs are weaned at three months, and are then allowed the 
best pastures. 

Augustus Frederick, Elector of Saxony, introduced Merino 
sheep into his dominions in ] 765 : the number was three hundred, 
divided into four establishments; and at the end often years they 
were found to have had all possible success; the sheep of the 
pure blood preserving every valuable quality, and the ultimate 
crosses having wool fully equal to the pure Merinos. The winter 
food of this race in Saxony consists of hay, lattermath, clover, 
oat or rye straw, pease- haulm, vetches, &c. which are given twice 
or thrice in the day in large buildings, but in summer the sheep 
are only housed at night, and kept from the pastures till the dew 
is dissipated. Salt is very generally distributed to them by the 
Saxons, from an idea that it contributes to their health and to the 
fineness of their fleeces. The lambs fall before March, and are 
weaned in June ; the sheep are washed before shearing in running 
water two successive days, suffered to dry for two days, and 
are shorn on the third which generally takes place in May. 
Saxony no longer imports Spanish wool ; and much of that grown 



16 

there has been sent for some years to the fairs at Lelpsic, and part 
of it i'Tiported into England. It is said to be allowed by manu- 
facturers, who have tried this wool, that it makes cloth superior 
in softness and fineness to any obtaintd from the best Spanish 
piles, 

The Merino breed of sheep was first introduced into Prusisa by 
M. Finck in 1768, who obtained his original stock from Saxony; 
but in 1779 he imported three rams and twenty ewes directly 
from Spain. Though he has carefully niaiatained the pure race, 
yet he has chiefly employed his rams in improving the native 
breeds. The Count de Magnis also possesses, at Eckersdorff in 
Silesia, a flock of nine thousand sheep by the Merino cross. His 
attention has been directed to uniting size with fineness of wool ; 
he has therefore mixed the best Merino rams with the large breed 
of Hungary, and in this respe£t has made great progress, one 
sheep with another giving three pounds of washed wool, on a 
carcase larger, stronger, and better formed than any other fine- 
wooUed sheep on the Continent. The times of yeaning, and the 
treatment of these flocks in Prussia and Silesia, are so nearly the 
same as what prevails in Saxony, as not to deserve a separate no- 
tice -, most of the farmers in Prussia allow their sheep to go out 
during the day in the severest weather, and give them dry food 
during the night. The Count de Magnis gives his sheep corn, 
but considers it as too expensive; he regards potatoes as equally 
beneficial with oats, and certainly much cheaper ; and during the 
winter his sheep eat as much salt as they choose. 

The war with Austria prevented M. Lasteyrie from visiting that 
country and some other parts of Germany; the information there- 
fore v/hich Dr. Parry is able to give, concerning their Spanish 
flocks, is very limited and imperfect. He relates however, from 
Lasteyrie, that the Empress Oueen Maria Theresa imported Me- 
rino sheep from Spain in 1775, and placed them at Mercopoil in 
Hungary ; and that subsequently to that period two other flocks 
have been brought from Alicant to Trieste ; and in 1 802 a person 
was employed by the Emperor to purchase sheep in Spain. In 
Anspach and Bayreuth attempts are noticed to improve the native 
sheep by the introdudion of Merinos ; and in Mecklenburgh, Zell, 
Brunswic, Baden, and Hanover, this race has been long enough 
introduced to improve the wool of those countries in a considera- 
ble degree. 

It is remarked, that few countries appear less adapted to the 
support of sheep than the rich and marshy soil of Holland ; yet ir^ 



17 

1789 M. Trent imported from Spain two rams and four ewes, and 
placed them on an estate between Leyden and the Hague ; in 
1793 he imported three new rams and four ewes ; and in 1802 
his flock amounted to one hundred. His rams' fleeces weighed 
from 10 to 1 4' pounds, and his ewes' fleeces from 6 to 10 pounds, 
in an unwashed state. To prove the fineness of his wool, he 
placed on a piece of black cloth nine specimens of his own wool 
by the side of the best specimens of superfine Spanish which he 
could procure, and sent them to a clothier, who pronounced five 
of Mr. Trent's specimens to be superior to the superfine Spanish. 
In 1793 M. Cuperus, near Leyden, also imported some Merinos 
from Spain into Holland, and his crosses of the native breeds 
were in 1802 nearly equal to the unmixed Spaniards in fineness of 
fleece. 

Piedmont appears to Dr. Parry to have first obtained the Spa- 
nish breed of sheep in 1793, when Prince Masserino chose 150 
ewes from the best flocks of Segovia. Notwithstanding the war 
which existed at the time, they increased considerably, and many 
crosses were obtained from the ewes of Germany, Rome, Naples, 
and Padua. The greater part of the proprietors agreed to fora. a 
society, and in 1801 obtained from the government of France, to 
which Piedmont was then annexed, a grant to improve under 
certain conditions, the plains of La Mandria : the laws for the 
regulation of the flocks of this society are given by M. Lastey- 
rie. The management of the Merino flocks of Piedmont ap- 
pears to vary but in few particulars from the modes which have 
been previously described. The cultivators of the plains of La 
Mandria drive their flocks to the Alps from the middle of June to 
the end of 06lober: they are seldom folded except in the moun- 
tains, experience having shewn that their dung in the house is 
more profitable, provided they are supplied with a proper quantity 
of straw. 

»« There is, however," says Dr. Parry, " no country in Europe, 
which of late years has taken such laudable pains in cultiva- 
ting the Merino breed of sheep as France." For though it appears 
that Spanish sheep had been imported into France at an early pe- 
riod, yet the first person that paid any systematic attention to the 
wools of that country, by this method, is said to have been Dau- 
benton, who in 1776 obtained part of 200 Merinos imported by 
M. Trudaine, intendant of the finances. The flock of Dauben- 
ton, is now in the possession of M. Thevenin of Tanlay, and pro- 
tluces wool of the very first quality. In 1786 about 400 Merino 



18 

sheep were presented by the king of Spain to Louis XVI. but 60 
of them died on their journey, and a greater number fell a sacri- 
fice to the febrile disease before mentioned, similar to the small- 
pox, after their arrival at Rambouillet. This royal present, ha- 
ving been chosen for their form and fleece from various Spanish 
flocks, differed much both in size and shape ; but having been 
better assorted after their arrival in France, produced a race un- 
like any of the original breeds, but equal to the best of them in 
mould and fineness of wool, and superior in weight of carcase 
and of fleece. A particular account is given of this flock, which 
was placed under the dire£lion of an agricultural committee at the 
commencement of the French revolution, who made an annual re- 
port to the National Institute on the subject. From h'he report of 
the year J 802 it is stated, on the authority of Lasteyrie, that the 
medium weight of the fleeces of full grown nursing ewes was 
about 8 lb, 7 oz. ; of the ewes of three years old, which had no 
lambs, about 9 1b. 13 oz.; of the two-tooth ewes about 10|lb.; 
and oi the rams of three or four years old about IJ lb, 5ioz.: 
each fleece selling on an average at the price of about 1/. 3^. W. 
sreriing. Dr. Parry has seen several specimens of the Rambouil- 
let wool of 1802, and indeed is in possession of some of it ; and, 
as far as he can judge of their quality by the naked eye, he coh- 
siders them to be equal to the Ryeland wool of the Spanish piles. 
It is stated that by a secret article in the treaty of Basil, the 
French Direftory had stipulated for itself the privilege of purcha- 
sing in Spain 1000 ewes and 100 rams in ea^h of the five succeed- 
ing years. From the Rambouillet flock many others have been 
established in France and its dependencies, none of which is said 
to be more justly entitled to general notice than that of M, C. 
Pidlet, of Geneva, who established a Merino flock in 1800 •, and 
besides these pure Spanish flocks, there are many others of a mixed 
breed, which have originated from experiments made by indivi- 
duals, the result of which is said to be, that, with due care, the 
wool in every breed of sheep is capable of arriving at a degree of 
fineness equal to that of the Merino, and that the eflVct is produ- 
ced by constantly crossing with the finest woolled rams, and is 
generally obtained sooner or later according to the fineness of the 
fleece of the ewe, but in no breed later than the fourth cross. 

From the account which he has given, it appears to the author 
of the Essay that the Spanish breed of sheep iias been much im- 
proved in weight, and probably fineness of fleece, and has con- 
siderably increased in size, by having been naturalized in France ; 



19 

and he thinks these valuable points have been accomplished in the 
four following ways : 1, By choosing for breeding the finest and 
best wooiled rams and ewes-, — 2, By never allowing them to pro- 
pagate till they have attained their full growth, which, at the ear- 
liest, is not till nearly three years of age ; — 3, By separating the 
weak from the strong ; — -i, By giving them good food and plenty 
of air and exercise. A particular account of the mode of feeding 
and treating them is subjoined in illustration of this opinion, which 
is too extended to be comprised in this analysis. 

it is next remarked on the authority of Count Alexis OrloiF, 
that Merino sheep have been imported into Russia, but no infor- 
mation is given of the result. With respect to this breed at the 
Cape of Goo ' Hope, some particulars are communicated from the 
information of Sir George Yonge, who was governor there; and the 
author having once had a ratn of the native Cape breed, speaks 
from his own knowledge that the wool chiefly consists of long 
coarse filaments like hair ; this has been very much improved by 
a cross of Merino rams ; and Dr. Parry speaks of a specimen of 
wool from the fourth cross of the native Cape sheep, which he 
had obtained from Sir George Yonge since his return to England, 
as having a filament so fine, as that the next cross would produce 
wool fully equal to good Spanish. 

From these Cape Merinos sprung a race of sheep, which were 
carried from thence in 1797, by Captain M'xA.rthur, to the English 
settlement on the coast of New Holland ; and a memorial pre- 
sented by that gentleman to the English government in 1783 is 
added, to evince his sanguine expectations that wool might be pro- 
duced there from the Merinos which would be sujjerior to Spanish 
wool, and some samples which he brought over and gave to Mr. 
Joyce, of Freshford near Bath, were equal in fineness to any he 
had ever manufactured. 

Though it is admitted that Merino sheep have been at various 
times imported into Great Britain, yet the plausible tales of the 
French Encyclopedists on this point are shewn to have no foun- 
dation in truth ; and the sheep of this breed, which have been 
imported in modern times, are believed to be very few, till the 
King obtained some Merino sheep in 1792 ; in which year he pur- 
chased five rams and thirty-five ewes from the flock of the Coun- 
tess del Campo Alange, which is called Negrette. The manage- 
ment and distribution of this flock through the country by perio- 
dical sales, are then amply detailed ; but these are circumstances 
too generally known to make their insertion necessary in this place. 



20 

The most ample information of the progress of the royal Merino 
flock of England, may be obtained from the Reports of Sir Jo- 
seph Banks, under whose care the flock is placed, and through 
whose judicious management, it is asserted, the form has been con- 
siderably improved, and the fleece rendered finer than the Ne- 
grette pile, the wool of the parent stock in Spain. 

The exertions of Lord Somerville to introduce Merino sheep 
are next noticed, with appropriate commendations of hys judgment 
and zealous a^livity in all agricultural pursuits ; and he 1s said to 
have treated his flock so successfully, that the cloth manufactured 
from his wool is superior to the greater part of that manufactured 
from Spanish, and the carcase at the same time is fast approaching 
to best Ryelands or South downs. The Merino flocks of Lord 
Portchester and Mr. Toilet, which have been formed from those 
of the king and Lord Somerville, are also mentioned; and it is 
added, that, besides these larger flocks, there are in the kingdom 
many smaller ones of Merino sheep, which the author cannot par- 
ticularize; but it appears to him that the principal mode in which 
the utility of the Merino race has been extended in England, has 
been by crossing our native breeds with Merino rams. The cross 
with Ryeland ewes is supposed to be that most frequently resorted 
to, and several gentlemen are named, who are zealously employed 
in promoting the cross with the Ryeland, the South-down and the 
Wiltshire breeds. 

The nobility and gentry of Ireland are stated to be engaged in 
an attempt to introduce the Merino race of sheep into that coun- 
try. In 1804 premiums were offered for both sheep and wool, 
to be exhibited at the great cattle fair at Ballinasloe. For the pre- 
miums for Merino Sheep there was that year no claimant ; but the 
premium of 20/. for the best ram's fleece grown in Ireland, was 
obtained by the Earl of Farnham, for a Merino-Ryeland fleece. 



21 



IlIS'l ORY OF THE 

MERINO-RYELAND BREED OF SHEEP, 

BY CAI,EB HILLAR PARRY, M. D. F. R. S. &c. 

C'amniiniications to the Board of .IgTiculture, Vol. V. Part II. 



THE history of the author's own breed of sheep is introduced 
by an account of his first turning to agriculture, and particularly 
the care and improvement of sheep in the year 1788 j but as he 
was not able to procure a Merino ram till 1797, it is only necessa- 
ry to notice his detail from that time. From 1797 he has been 
enabled regularly to employ rams of the pure blood in his own 
flock, and had obtained in 1805 a total of 382 fine-wooUed sheep 
and lambs, besides nearly 100 of mixed breeds. Dr. Parry seemed 
to have long reasoned upon the project of producing fine wool in 
England, which should be fully equal to the best Spanish, and to 
have entertained an almost certainty of success. For though ge- 
neral opinion had long decided that it was impracticable to raise in 
this country wool equal to that of Spain, yet it appeared to him 
that this opinion, whether as referable to clitnate, food or habits 
of travelling, was founded on nothing better than mere prejudice. 
He had remarked that the skin and the hair of the Negro and 
Gipsey in England remained unchanged, from what they original- 
ly were in Africa, Hindostan, or Malacca ; those of" the North 
American, of West Indian and of European descent, continuing 
similar to those of their native country ; tliat the form and fea- 
thers of the turkey and domestic fowl, continue similar to those 
of their native country, whether in North America or Asia ; and 
that the Arabian stallion delivered down his most boastei excel- 
lencies through our native mares. When he considered tha: these 
circumstances took place in spite of all the changes of climate, food, 
C 



2ii 

iincl general habits of life, he concluded fi'om analogy, what has 
been since verified by experience, that Merino sheep would pro- 
duce wool equally fine in this country as in Spain : his opinion 
was strengthened by the circumstance, that the Finlander and the 
Laplander, contiguous inhabitants of the northern parts of Swe- 
den, continue to this day two distiniSl varieties of the human race. 
When he turned his refleiSlions from other animals to the race 
of sheep, it struck him forcibly that the Portland sheep, though 
one of the smallest races in Britain, and living on a bare natural 
pasture in a temperate climate, produced a small fleece of the 
coarsest clothing wool ; and that the same circumstance took place 
in regard to the sheep on the cold mountains of Wales ; and on 
the other hand that the Merino breed inhabiting Spain had the 
linest fleece in the world in all the different situations of that 
country, he felt a conviclion therefore that the fineness and 
weight of fleece are by no means relative to the climate, soil, 
quantity or quality of food, size or habits of life of the sheep them- 
selves. To these arguments from analogy, he adds the decisive 
test of dire<Sl experience in the Merino being naturalized in Swe- 
den, Denmark, Prussia, Saxony, Silesia, Hungary, Austria, Hano- 
ver, Holland, Bayreuth, Anspach, Wirtemberg, Baden, France, 
Switzerland, Piedmont, the Cape of Good Hope, and New South 
Wales, as well as in this country : in almost all which countries 
the food and treatment of the sheep, as well as the climate, admit 
of so many variations. Yet under all this diversity of climate, 
soil, and treatment, the Merino sheep have flourished and produ- 
ced wool equal to the native growth of Spain. He concludes these 
observations by asserting that " these facts surely prove that it is 
the peculiarity of the breed, which we are to consider, as chiefly 
produiStive of fine wool, in spite of the operation of other causes." 
It has been stated in the first part of the Essay, on the authority 
of the continental writers on the subject, that any breed of ewes, 
however long and coarse in the fleece, would on the fourth cross 
of the Merino ram give progeny with short wool equal to the 
Spanish ; but this opinion the author corrects from his own expe- 
rience i for though he found this to take place in four crosses 
from the Ryeland breed, yet it did not obtain in four crosses from 
the Wiltshire, and the same held true with regard to the speci- 
men of Cape wool of the same cross, which he obtained from Sir 
George Yonge; though in the two last cases one cross more would 
have etFefted it j he infers therefore that the exaft number of four 



crosses being suiEeient to produce the finest wool must not be ad- 
mitted as a universal proposition. 

A table is tlien added, with observations as to the probable in- 
crease of a given number of sheep crossed by a Merino ram in cer- 
tain predicated cases, but as these are rather speculative than 
pra^lical, we shall pass them over. 

The author of the Essay next observes that " we have no right 
a priori to conclude the Merino fleece to be, in any view, the best 
which can exist on a sheep," since it cannot be decided that in 
point of smallness, strength and inelasticity of filament, wool may 
not be produced superior to the Spanish ; and he gives it as his 
own opinion that this is the case in the union of the Merino with 
the Ryeland. The superior softness and silkiness of tlie wool of 
the fourth cross of his Merino-Ryeland breed to that of the pure 
Negrette flock from which it is derived, is stated not to admit of 
doubt J and it is suggested that farther improvement may be ob- 
tained by carefully and continually breeding in and in from sheep 
at that degree of mixture *, but he has found the wool of a whole 
generation made considerably coarser by a fifth cross of the pure 
Merino. Pie at the same time admits that his great choice of 
rams of the Merino-Ryeland mixture gave him an advantage of 
seledting from his own flock, rams with finer fleeces than Meri- 
nos. It is added that the wool of Lord Somerville and of His 
Majesty is finer than the original pile of the Negrette flock in 
Spain ; and that the same is true of the Rambouillet flock in 
France, that of M. Pidlet of Geneva, and that of the Eledlor of 
Saxony. 

In order to demonstrate to the Board of Agriculture the further 
improvement which had arisen from a careful admixture of ani- 
mals of the fourth cross. Dr. Parry submitted to their attention 
many specimens of his own, as well as of Spanish wool, and of 
cloth and casimir manufactured from the produce of his Merino- 
Ryeland race, for which he claims a decided superiority to cloth 
and casimir manufadliured from pure Spanish wool : many particu- 
lars are detailed which would not well admit of abridgment, 
but it appears that the Refina, or finest sort of wool, bears a great- 
er proportion to the whole fleece of Dr. Parry's than in the fleece 
of Spain; that the whole fleece is greater in weight, and the waste 
less in washing and scowering, even when the yolk is completely 
separated by the addition of an alkaline salt to the hot water, 
which is represented to be the only certain means of removing it 
entirely. The following Table is given as the result : — To obtain 



24 

two pounds and a half of wool, requires of unwashed wool, as fol- 
lows : 

lb. cz. 

Of the author's Merino-Ryeland flock - - - 5 

Of Lord Somerville's flock ----^-5 

Of the flock of M. PicSiet of Geneva - - - 6 2 

Of the R.ambouiHet flock 7 8 

Of the Merino breeds in Spain ----- 7 8 

Of the mixed French breeds ----- 6 2 

Calculations of the value of ihe wool in the yolk are next sub- 
joined ; and the writer comphiins of the want of a market in this 
country for Merino-Ryeland in that state ; and recommends re- 
ducing it by washing to the same state in which Spanish wool is 
imported, before it is offered to the manufafturer. To shew its 
value in the manufacture itself, comparatively with Spanish wool 
of commerce, he states that in 1804, 421b. of Refina wool cleaned, 
scowered, and picked, made 26i of cloth, while 60ib, of good 
Spanish wool are required to make SO yards, or according to one 
very intelligent manufadturer, 29 yards of the best wool dyed 
broaa-cloth.* 

With respeft to the price which Dr. Parry has aClually made of 
his Merino Ryelard wool, he declines nam.ing it, because he has 
liad much manufactured for himself and his friends, and has fre- 
quently sold only small quantities, not sufficiently large to regulate 
any market, or even to ascertain what clothiers would give for it, 
as he has not provoked competition; and besides he does not think 
it honourable to disclose any secrets of the woollen manufactory, 
which he may have obtained through the partiality of his friends 
in that department of trade. Ke says however that the manufac- 
turer will be sufficiently apprized of the value of the wool, when 
he is told that the piece of blue broad-cloth already mentioned 
was sold for 24j'. the yard, and at the same time a piece of casimir 
made of somewhat inferior wool at 7x. 3r/. per yard, to the same 
draper, both ready money, and without dedudlion of length ; and 

* Mr. Livingston in liis excellent "Essay on Hlicep, ' in Si)ciikir,g-'iO liiis very 
point, observes, "Tliis is somethi-.is: niorethan lib. 9oz.to the \\m\\. if I was 
to detern'.ii.e tl.e fineness of my flock by the same rule, I should exeeed both, 
since the same quantity of cloth was made at Clermont by common country 
spinners and weiuers from lib. 4oz. of Clermont ^i^Ieriuo wool ; and 32^ yard.s 
of 2c| inches wide, v. eve made ill Mr. E. P, Liviug-ston's family from 16| lbs. of 
wool." — p. 129. 



that he had been offered 33/. a yard for another piece which he 
exhibited to the Board. 

The account thus given of the Merino-Ryeland wool is applied 
only to that of the ultinmte degree of fineness, or at least of- that 
degree which is equal to Spanish wool of commerce ; but it is not 
to be referred to the wool of crossing in the intermediate degrees, 
as the author had either mislaid or forgotten most of the observa- 
tions during the course of the experiment; but he had observed 
that the first mixture of the Merino with the Ryeland adds about 
one-third or somewhat less to the fl.eece of the latter breed, with- 
out having much influenced its fineness; that the second and third 
mixture of these breeds carries the wool of the ewe to the length 
of four, and sometimes six inches, with great increase of weight, 
but still considerable coarseness in the filament •, and that the 
fourth cross brings the wool to the Spanish standard in point of 
fineness, and greatly reduces the length, leaving it still somewhat 
greviter than the pure. And the reader is referred for a more par- 
ticular account to the publications of Lord Somerville and Mr. 
Toilet. 

After these comments on the wool of the Merino-Ryeland 
sheep, he next considers that of the lamb ; and states that the 
Merino lambs wool imported into England is much coarser and 
more wiry than the sheeps wool; it also appears to him that the 
fourth and fifth crosses of the Merino-Ryeland with the Negrette 
ram have also this tendency ; while from 72lb. of his own lambs- 
wool carefully selected, which was reduced by washing and scow- 
ering to 421b. a piece of blue ladies broad-cloth of the length of 
28 j; yards dyed in the wool, was manufactured by Mr. Naish of 
Tiverton, which the author sold for 2ls. per yard ready money, 
and without deduction of length ; and the draper who purchased 
this cloth publicly declared that having had one of these coats 
constantly in wear from six to nearly twelve months, he never had 
any which remained so long unaltered as to pile and beauty. 

Having finished all that he deemed necessary to state as to the 
wool of the sheep, he next proceeds to the carcase, and relates 
that in point of size his Mermo-Ryeland sheep are equal to the 
Ryeland; and after arguing upon the comparative profitableness 
of the larger or smaller breed of animals, in the opinions of both 
farmers and butchers, gives his own in favour of the smaller breeds 
of neat cattle and sheep, which was also the general result of the 
experiments made by the late Duke of Bedford, by Mr. Billings- 
ley and Mr. Davis. He judiciously remarks that " a small sheep 



26 

becomes fit for food from a proportionably smaller quantity of 
keep, than a large one, and the joints into which it is divided, are 
better accommodated to the use of common families," and thinks 
the minimum in point of convenience to be between 14- and ]8lb. 
per quarter, to which size wedders of the Merino-Ryeland breed 
are easily brought. With respe£t to the fitness of fat itself, he 
remarks that a certain proportion of it according to the m.odes of 
cookery in England, and he thinks he might add in England only, 
is coveted by every palate, and a larger proportion is desired by the 
labouring part of the people, who like it in their broths, their pud- 
dings and their fried vegetables, but that the number of such 
purchasers is very limited, and that among the middle and 
wealthier class of the people, and especially among their domes- 
tics, very fat mutton on the table is an object of aversion. 

The author proceeds to draw a comparison between the smaller 
breeds of sheep, particularly the Merino-Ryeland, and the new 
Leicester, and decidedly gives the preference to the former. In 
forming his own flock he declares that his view has certainly been 
to place the finest wool on the best carcase, but as he thought the 
two objects incompatible at the same time during the commence- 
ment of experim.ents in crossing the two breeds, he confined him- 
self to the former objecl alone, which however is not yet fully 
accomplished. 

It might be expected, he observes, that he should give some 
account of the fattening of the sheep, and the food and treatment 
best calculated for that purpose, but he could give the Board no 
satisfactory iniormation on that subject, as he considers himself a 
mere breeding farmer, and had hitherto looked only to the ex- 
tension of his flock and the improvement of his wool. He consi- 
ders the Merino-Ryeland as a hardy race of sheep well calculated 
for living on high and e:jposed situations •, more easily confined by 
fences, and more obedient to the shepherd and his dog, than the 
pure Ryeland ; the skin also of the Merino-Ryeland has the same 
vivid tint of carnation as the pure Merino, and like that an aston- 
ishing degree of thinness, softness, and looseness. 

Dr. Parry next treats of the health and diseases of Merino-Rye- 
land sheep, and asserts the breed to be fully equal to our native 
sheep in point of health ; a few of his flock however have died of 
inflammation of the pleura, or membrane lining the chest and 
lungs, which manifested itself by the common appearances both 
before and after death; they are also subjedt to giddiness, princi- 
pally in the first and second year, which frequently proves fatal. 



27 

and invariably on disseiSlion a bag of water is found in the cavities 
of the skull, occasioning a pressure on the brain. The most com- 
mon disease, and at the same time the most difficult to cure, is 
the scab, which however is the same disease which afFefts other 
sheep, but the extreme fineness of the skin renders it more diffi- 
cult to be eradicated than in the coarser breeds ; and though the 
foot-rot is not enumerated among the diseases afFecting Merino 
sheep either in France or Spain, yet Dr. Parry's mixed race have 
frequently suffered from it : upon the whole the Merino-Ryeland 
breed of sheep do not appear to be quite so hardy as some others, 
yet under that attention which it well repays, it is found to be full 
as exempt from disease, as any of our indigenous breeds. 

And though the account, given of the different qualities of this 
breed of sheep, may seem sufficiently flattering to lead to a ready 
and wide extension, yet many difficulties and objetSlions occur. 
The writer observes with regret that the chief obstacle arises from 
the backwardness of the manufadlurer to give the proper price 
for the wool, which is felt not only by the common growers of 
such wool, but in the Royal flock itself; though it is acknowledged 
that the wool of this flock is better than that of the Negrette pile 
of Spain, yet in 1 802 the Refina, clean scowered, sold only for 5s. 
9d. per pound, while the manufadlurer gave 7s. Sd. per pound for 
Negrette in the same state. Many pretexts are enumerated which 
have been cfiered by the manufadlurers of, and dealers in wool, 
but they are all refuted, and resolved into wilful prejudice. Ma- 
nufaclurers, anxious to preserve the excellence and established re- 
putation of their approved fabrics, are not to blame for doubt and 
caution in the admission of a new material ; but it is asserted that 
when the value of this material becomes known, and it obtains its 
price, sufficient will be grown to supply the market, inasmuch as 
the extension of fine wool only languishes for-.vant of encourage- 
ment. Several remedies are suggested; — to reduce it to the state 
of Spanish wool of commerce, before it is offered for sale; — for 
gentlemen of rank and fortune to give a preference to cloths made 
of wool of our own growth, that inquiries for such cloths might 
stimulate the draper to demand them of the manufadlurer ; — the 
establishment of central markets for fine British wool ; — and the 
employing one manufa£lurer, selected by the growers, to make up 
for the market all the British fine wool which should be sent to 
him, at a certain rate, and with an accurate return of particulars. 
The chief difficulty which stands in the way of the farmer being 



thus removed, the deiiiand for the wool would doubtless increase 
the breed to a vast extent. 

The profit of this breed to the fanner, comparatively with 
others of the short-woolled kind, are then considered •, and upon 
the supposition that there are three millions and a half of acres of 
land incapable of any ioiprovement by the plough, and which at 
present make no return but by the wool of the sheep which they 
support, reckoning one sheep as the stock of two acres and a half, 
if Merino-Ryeland sheep were stocked on such land, and each 
sheep produced four pounds of wool in the yolk, a produce may be 
obtained of at least 6s. per acre every year by the growth of wool 
only. The best and fairest method of estimating the comparative 
profit on diiferent kinds of sheep, is stated to be, not according to 
the number of animals, which would probably vary materially in 
weight, but according to a given weight of each race ; and assu- 
ming i25lb. the most usual weight of a Southdown, as the stand- 
ard, the following is stated as the produce of different breeds, viz. 

Ih. dz. dr. 

South-down, clean scowered - - - 2 6,3' 

Ryeland in the same state - - - - 2 5 2i 

Merino-Ryeland, in the same state - 3 12 

From which it appears that on 125lb. of living carcase, the Meri- 
no-Ryeland carries lib. 5oz. 4|dr. of scowered wool more than the 
South-down, and lib. 6oz. 5|dr. more than the Ryeland. If 
therefore the three millions and a half of acres above m.entioned of 
unimprovable land are sapposed to carry not more than one sheep 
to two acres and an half, the produce of Merino-Ryeland wool, 
at 41b. per fleece in the yolk, would give 2,800,000lbs. of clean 
wool, Vvrhieh at Isi^Gd. per pound would amount to ^1,050,000; 
while the best price for the common wool now produced on such 
land does not exceed 2s. 2i. per pound, and the greatest quantity 
does not exceed l^lb. of clean scowered wool from each fleece, 
giving the value of ^189,583; leaving an annual superiority in 
favour of the Merino-Ryeland wool of 2^860,417, which is nearly 
five times the value of the present produce. Many calculations 
are subjoined to point out the number of Merino-Ryeland sheep 
necessary to produce annually an equal quantity of fine wool to 
that which is now imported from the Spanish market, all of which 
are obviously deduced from the foregoing premises. 



29 

Having remarked in the preceding part of the Essay, that the 
French found no material loss of weight in wool of the Merino 
breed suffered to remain two and even three years on the same 
animal ; Dr» Parry relates that he has had a similar result as to 
the wool of a Merino-RyelanJ; and though such wool might be 
inferior in value to the manufa£lurer of cloth, yet it would not 
become much deteriorated ; for M. PicStet of Geneva and his 
wife applied these materials, by themselves, to the manufa£lure of 
shavvls, which according to his description, as well as that of Mr. 
Poole, who had seen them, were superior in softness, lightness, 
and beauty to any produced in Norwich or other parts of Eng- 
land ; and when he inquired of a friend as to the pra^Sticability of 
employing jSne long wool for that purpose, he learned that he 
had been anticipated by Mr. Toilet, whose wool was adlually in 
preparation for such an experiment. He states his own fleece be- 
fore mentioned, which is six inches in length, and of the finest 
filament, to be ready for trial by any manufatSturer of shawls who 
shall apply for it. He here concludes his remarks on the compa- 
rative value of the Merino- Ryeland breed of sheep to the farmer, 
the clothier, and the kingdom at large, having pointed out the 
most powerful motives for the extension of this and similar 
breeds : and next adverts to their management. 

The first objedl of inquiry which presented itself, relative to the 
management of this race of sheep, was the proper age and season 
of propagation. It is related that the curators of the Merino flock 
of Rambouillet lay it down as a principle, that in order to insure 
the true growth of the progeny, and an exuberant crop of wool, 
no sheep should be permitted to generate, till it be two years and 
a half old, by which time they consider the growth of the animal 
nearly completed: this principle they apply to the rams as well as 
the ewes, and its propriety seems to be evinced by the improve- 
ment of that flock, which in size of carcase and weight of fleece 
exceeds every other of the same race : while M. Piclet and some 
others on the contrary contend that it occasions great loss of time 
in obtaining a flock, and is contrary to the instincts of nature, 
which are infallible. Some truth is admitted to exist in the first 
proposition, but none in the second ; and this is supported by rea- 
soning from the analogy of what happens to other animals, and in 
the human race. On this point however, various sentiments ob- 
tain ; nor is there less difference of opinion as to the season and 
manner of putting the ram to the ewes; and it is asserted that in 
England these points are ch'efly regulated by two considerations ; 



30 

— food and the convenient falling of the lambs. The smaller 
breeds of sheep, which are usually fed on hills and dry lands, on 
which the spring of grass is late, are so managed that the ewes 
shall lamb from the middle of March to the middle of April, 
while the proprietors of several of the larger breeds are interest- 
ed in early yeaning, either for house or grass lambs. It seems to 
the author as if there were in different breeds a natural variation 
in the period in which the female seeks the embraces of the male ; 
for he remarked that 47 Merino-Ryeland ewes discovered these 
propensities much sooner than 60 ewes of the same age, which 
were either pure Ryelands, or a cross of the Leicester. This sub- 
je£l is dilated upon pretty much at large, and the various practices 
described ; but as the essay itself will be referred to by the curi- 
ous sheep-breeder, who means to regulate his flocks by the sug- 
gestions it affords, it is unnecessary to particularize this part of it 
for any other class of readers. Dr. Parry gives it as his opinion 
that most advantages wjlll result from permitting the sexual inter- 
course to take place early in the autumn. 

The Herefordshire custom of housing, or as they call it cotting, 
their breeding ewes and lambs, is descanted upon as a practice 
from which many benefits have been erroneously supposed to 
arise ; and it is recommended as a better plan to elevate the vari- 
ous ricks in a farm-yard on a basis or floor five feet from the 
ground, under which the sheep might be either constantly or oc- 
casionally sheltered, and the ground be littered and kept clean like 
a house: a copious supply of proper food to the ewes and lambs is 
also mentioned as an essential point to insure success ; and the 
shepherd is advised to give good hay, and to offer it in cribs ra- 
ther than in racks, to prevent waste. Hay of quick growth is 
stated to be preferable to all other for sheep, because they uni- 
formly rejedl that which is benty, and only eat that which is made 
from young and succulent grass; but the best sort of dry food is 
asserted to be linseed, which the author gave his sheep in the fol- 
lowing manner •, — one part of the whole seed was mixed in a 
tub with seven parts by measure of cold water, and suffered to 
stand all night ; in the morning the whole was boiled up to- 
gether ; when cold it formed a jelly thicker than the white of an 
O'^gy and was given in troughs either by itself, or mixed to a 
nearly dry state with hay cut into chaff. In either v/ay the sheep 
ate it readily, and the lambs themselves at a certain age ; and both 
from habit became excessively fond of it : he never fed his own 



3i 

sheep with chopped straw, pease-haulm; or various other dried 
vegetables recommended by foreign agriculturists. 

Considering it of great consequence to economize meadow hay, 
as much as possible, being the most expensive of all dry food, the 
author speaks of the lattermath of such grass as excellent food for 
sheep, as well as clover, lucerne, and sainfoin, on-account of their 
succulence and tenderness ; but what he recommends as the most 
profitable of all food, and which is always within our reach, is the 
rouen, or aftergrass, reserved through the winter ; which, though 
many inches in height, is capable of being kept without loss in dry 
situations, and will be eaten up clean by sheep and lambs of all de- 
scriptions at the latter end of winter and in the spring : many 
years experience has confirmed him in his opinion of its excel- 
lence, and he pronounces the public under the greatest obligations 
to Mr. Arthur Young and other agriculturists, who have made 
known its merits. Of turnips he professes to know little by expe- 
rience, but has found them on every trial much inferior to the 
cabbage tribe, on which he has long been accustomed to place his 
chief dependence for the winter and spring food of his flock, with- 
out ever having experienced disappointment. The general prin- 
ciple that vegetables should always be transplanted into a good 
soil from one that is poorer, he decidedly reprobates, and has al- 
ways followed exactly the reverse ; for he would treat seed like a 
foetus in the womb of its mother, and a young plant Hke a young 
animal, and by a proper choice of seed, early sowing, warmth, de- 
fence against injury, and plenty of the most nourishing food, 
would push it rapidly, safely and uniformly through all its stages, 
so as in the time limited by nature for its growth, to give it the 
greatest possible dimensions and succulence. The writer's mode 
of sowing and raising cabbages is minutely described in the suc- 
ceeding pages ; but as it scarcely deviates from the pradlice of 
every good gardner, it need not be recounted. He has tried rape 
as a spring food for his sheep, and has found it profitable, and has 
occasionally given carrots and potatoes j but has discarded the 
use of all these as inferior to the cabbage •, he also formerly pro- 
vided chicory, or wild endive, as a change of spring food, but has 
now given it up in favour of spring vetches. Salt he never gave his 
flock but once, and then he mixed it among his hay, when it was 
made into the rick. 

Adverting to the diseases of the Merino-Ryeland breed of sheep, 
he enumerates the hydatids in the lungs, giddiness, foot- rot, scab, 
scouring, hypobosca ovina or sheep-tick, the fly or maggots, 



S2 

tetanus or locked j:uv. His observations on these diseases, which 
are all common to the several breeds of sheep in this country, 
contain little but what may be found in other writers, and no- 
thing meriting particular notice. P'ew of the remedies recom- 
mended are peculiar to the work ; it is however v.forthy of recol- 
le£lion, that for common scouring in sheep or lambs, when it is 
the result of mere indigestion, he found the following an effectual 
remedy ; — he took equal weights of salt and whiting reduced 
to a fine powder, and dissolved the salt in four times as many pints 
of water as there were pounds of salt, stirring in the whiting by 
small quantities *, when this had been simmered over the fire till it 
became thick enough to make into pellets, he gave five pellets 
of the size of the tip of his middle finger to each of his ram-hogs 
every morning ; and found the remedy efi'edtual. He observes 
that the troublesome animal the sheep tick may be in a great mea- 
sure destroyed by pouring a solution of powdered white arsenic in 
boiling water, in the proportion of an ounce to a gallon, cold on 
the back of the sheep, and letting it diffuse itself down the skin on 
each side; he indicates the necessity of attending to the poisonous 
nature of the hquid. 

As the value of the fleece renders the management of it an 
object of much importance, he recommends that the pastures 
where Merino-Ryeland sheep feed, should be carefully freed 
from thistles, briars, loose-thorns, the burdock, clivers, and all 
other weeds, which either tear off the wool, or drop among it 
their rough seeds, which cannot afterwards be separated without' 
much less, labour and expense; that the hay should be given in 
cribs, the iiy be attentively guarded against, and the ordure 
which adheres to the tail constantly cut off. He agrees with the 
Spaniards in objecling to wrshing the wool on the sheep's back 
before shearing; for the fleece is so thick, that, when thoroughly 
soaked wiih water, it is so long in drying, that if the weather 
prove wet and cold, the sheep is much incommoded. His own 
time of shearing has usually been about the second week in June, 
but the period ought to be regulated by climate, season, and other 
circumstances, and the operation should be perfornied earlier on 
the Merino, than on our native breeds, and if very cold or wet 
weather follows, the sheep should be housed for two or three 
nights ; the wool should be clipped round the animal and entirely 
separated at one cut, which cannot be done in the common me- 
thod of shearing lengthways. The wool should be kept in baskets 
rather than in bags, and be shorn dry, and laid up ia a two-pair of 



S3 

stairs room on a boarded floor. The perfe£lIon of the washing 
is said to depend a good deal on the season, and ought to be done 
if possible, before the end of 0(Stober, after which period the wa- 
ter would cool too soon, and the shortness and coldness of the days 
would make it difficult to dry the wool : the water should be heat- 
ed to 144* degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and the wool be 
steeped at least eight or ten hours; and after the washing, be 
rinced in a running stream if possible ; and should then be drain- 
ed or pressed ; but the latter method is preferred. The wool is 
then in the Spanish state, after which the yolk must be farther de- 
tached by scowering before it be manufadtured. The lambs are 
usually shorn unwashed at the end of July or beginning of August, 
and have not appeared to suffer any injury. The author proceeds 
to remark that it may be easily inferred from what has been said 
with regard to the relative quality of the lamb's wool, that no de- 
cisive judgment can be formed from it as to the future fineness of 
the fleece ; and he is persuaded that a still worse decision can at 
that period be made as to the size and proportion of the carcase ; 
so that the value or excellence of a ram cannot be ascertained till 
he is three or four years old : this circumstance renders him ex- 
tremely averse to the castration of the lambs, which he never 
performs except on those who have either sprung from coarse- 
wooUed ewes, or are grossly defective in point of carcase. He has 
hitherto weaned his lambs at once, without any apparent disad- 
vantage either to the dam or the young ; but it has been necessa- 
ry to milk the ewes twice or thrice afterwards at the interval of 
two or three days. He observes the horns of the rams may be 
shortened to about six inches without any inconvenience by a saw, 
and if the entire banishment of the horn be desired, he knows it 
may be elFedled by breeding from polled rams: and he considers 
the best mode of marking the rams to be branding them on the 
horn with a hot iron. 

The last chapter of the Essay is on the mode of forming a flock 
vsfhich shall have superfine wool on a beautiful carcase, so as to 
combine the essential points of wool and carcase in the greatest 
degree. The author does not see however by what means, in the 
beginning of an experiment, we can proceed with equal pace to- 
wards both these objedls. " If," says he, " our view be goodness 
of form, we need not go for that purpose to Spain, but may better 
accomplish it in a single day in Sussex, or in Leicestershire: but the 
new and great point is to superinduce the Merino fleece." He 
considers it extremely probable that the female has more influence 



34 

in the produ^lion of form than the male, and is confirmed in this 
sentiment because the lambs got by the finest-woolled ram, which 
was not well shaped, and smaller than most of the other males, 
turned out to be larger and better formed than the generality of 
his other stock j and he has noticed the same thing to happen in 
other animals. He also apprehends that a ram of the cross breed 
is as good for the purposes of propagation as an equally good Me- 
rino ram, and better than one that i-s inferior. With respect to 
what the ignorant call " Nature," and those who fancy themselves 
more learned, " Blood," he considers it to be nothing more than 
an abstra6t term, expressive of certain external and visible forms, 
which from experience we infer to be inseparably connedled with 
those excellencies we most covet : and gives it as his opinion re- 
sulting from all his observations and experience, " that he who at 
this time beginning to breed, prefers the best pure Merino ram to 
the best Merino-Ryeland, will probably find himself eight years 
behind in the experiment." And after a flock of Merino-Ryeland 
sheep has been obtained, nothing seems to him to promise greater 
benefit in the improvement of it, than a division into classes ac- 
cording to age and strength ; as the robust always harrass the 
weaker and drive them from their food. 

The Essay is concluded with a notice that M. Piclet is now try- 
ing at Geneva, as Columella formerly did at Rome, some experi- 
ments to introduce a coloured wool of natural growth, but much 
success is not expected from it. And having faithfully related 
every thing important which he knows either from his own expe- 
rience, or good authority, relative to the pure Merino, and Meri- 
no-Ryeland breeds of sheep, he states that the disposition in the 
Merino-Ryeland breed to assume the paternal fleece and the 
maternal shape, has led him to conclude that this principle might 
be advantageously applied to the union of the finest-woolled 
ram with coarser ewes pre-eminent as to form ; and with this 
view is now trying experiments with ewes of the Leicester-Rye- 
land, and Leicester-South-down crosses, though at his advanced 
period of life he dare not flatter hi.nself that he shall live to see 
the result. 



35 



SUPPLEMENT. 



The Supplement, besides stating a few additional fa£ts which 
confirm the opinions offered in the body of the Essay, gives an ac- 
count of a method of measuring the relative fineness of the fila- 
ments of wool, a table of comparative diameters of the filaments of 
various clothing wools, and the results of these admeasurements. 
The uncertainty of all the modes which have been previously 
adopted induced the author to apply to Dr. Herschel, who advised 
him to make use of the method which he has described in an ac- 
count of his lamp- micrometer in the Philosophical Transactions 
for 1782. He availed himself of these suggestions, and soon 
found that the relative diameters of minute objects might be as- 
certained with great precision by placing an objedl of a known 
diameter on the stage of a microscope in a strong light, and a 
piece of white paper spread horizontally beneath it; then by look- 
ing through the tube at the object with both eyes open, its image 
may be seen proje6led on the paper below, which may be measu- 
red with a pair of compasses; and if the magnified objedt be divi- 
ded by the known diameter of the objeft the magnifying power 
vill be ascertained. This being found, place on the stage the ob- 
ject of which the diameter is sought, and having measured with the 
compasses, as before, the diameter of its image projected on the pa- 
per below, divide that diameter by the magnifying power, and 
the quotient will be the real magnitude required. Pie applied 
this principle to the filaments of various clothing wools strongly 
illuminated by the refledled light of an Argand lamp, and has gi- 
ven a table of their diameters at the outer end of the filament, 
the middle, and the inner end, as well as their mean diameter. 

It resulted from the admeasurements made by Dr. Parry : — 
1, That the wool of one of his ewes was considerably finer than 
that of any other kind, which he had an opportunity of examin- 
ing ; and the wool of another nearly as fine as the best Spanish 
pile. — 2, That the wool of two of his rams, both of which sprung 
from Merino-Ryeland sires with ewes of the same cross, was finer 
than that of any ram of any breed, which it had been in his power 
to measure, and that one of them was superior to any imported 



36 

wool of either sex. — 3, That the wool of all his rams similarly 
descended, which he had measured, was finer than that of 3 out of 
5 of the pure Merinos. — 4, That the Negrette breed of sheep is 
greatlyimproved in itswool byhaving been introduced intoEnglnndj 
the specimen of the Royal flock which he measured being finer 
not only than the finest of that pile procured from Spain, but than 
any other Spanish pile which he had seen. — 5, That the Merino 
wool may be considerably improved in fineness by an admixture 
of the Ryeland breed, and afterwards by breeding in and in from 
the fourth cross of that breed. — 6, Tiiat in a ccarsc-woolled breed 
of sheep, as that of the Cape of Good Hope, four crosses of the 
pure Merino are by no means capable of bringing the wool of 
the produce to an equality in fineness with the paternal race. — 
And 7, That so far as these observations go, the form of the fila- 
ments of clothing wool is not that of two cones joined together 
by their apices, but that of a single cone, of which the apex is next 
the skin. 



OBSERVATIONS BY THE EDITORS OF THE 
RETROSPECT. 

This Essay, together with the former by the same author 
may be considered as a complete history of the Merino 
breed of sheep, as well as of all attempts to introduce them 
into the different countries of Europe. In this point of view 
the information is certainly important, but it is much more 
so as detailing the means by which the introduiStion of fine wool- 
led sheep into our own country may be attempted with scarcely 
a doubt of success, and as pointing out that even a superior degree 
of fineness of wool, than has yet been known in Spain, may be ob- 
tained by a judicious admixture of the Merino with the Ryeland 
breed. The account of the author's own flock is much less de- 
serving of notice as a private memoir of successful husbandry, than 
as an elucidation of the principles on which superiority of fineness 
may be obtained in wool at the same time with an accession of 
weight and symmetry in the carcase of the animal. 

An attentive perusal of the account here given of this Essay will 
render superfluous any observations recommending it to the perusal, 
of the readers of the Retrospect. The accuracy with which Dr. 
Parry's experiments have been made, and the clearness with which 
they have been detailed, do of themselves sufficiently stamp the 
viiliic of the Essay. In the compass of a single half volume every 



37 

thing is comprized which has been known or published in the va- 
rious countries of Europe respe£ling the Merino breed of sheep, 
together with a most minute and particular account of the effe£l of 
mixing that breed with one of the most valuable of our native 
races of sheep. 

To point out any particular parts of the Essay as more worthy of 
approbation than the rest would be doing justice neither to the au- 
thor nor to the reader ; though it may be affirmed that the second 
part is more important in point of information than the first ; as it 
contains the history of the writer's own flock of the mixed breed, 
while the first part is only the cohesion of all that is valuable in 
other publications. 



AN INQUIRY WHETHER TIIS 

PURE MERINO BREED OF SHEEP 

Js tioiu necessary in order to maintain the Growth of Superfine Wool in 
Great Britain, 

BY CALEB RILLAR PARRY, M. D. F. R. S. L^c. 

Bath Society^s Papers. Vol. If. 



THE writer commences his inquiry by observing, that an 
opinion has been for some time industriously propagated, that no 
cross breed of sheep can maintain the ultimate fineness of fleece, 
without having recourse to fresh crosses •, this opinion he con- 
ceives to be no better founded than the long-established prejudice, 
" that fine wool could not be produced in Great Britain," of which 
experience has now demonstrated the falsehood ; and considering 
that the assertion, " that fine wool can be with difiiculty pre- 
served," to be a serious and grave proposition, he deems it neces- 
sary to investigate the fa£l: in order to arrive at some tolerably 
certain conclusion j for if after 15 or 20 years assiduous attention 
to the business of crossing eventually from rams derived from his 
own mixed stock, a man should have brought his flock to great 
excellence in carcase, and the greatest possible fineness of wool, 
and shall then find his fleece begin to degenerate, so that, in order 

E 



to restore its fineness, he shall be obUg^ed to sacrifice the form by 
the new introdudlion of ill shaped Merinos, who is there that 
would be mad enough to undertake the hopeless project of form- 
ing a beautiful and fine-woolled flock, under the prospect of such 
dependence and disappointment ? Dr. Parry trusts he is enabled 
to shew that the apprehension has no foundation in truth. He 
proceeds then to examine what changes arc usually produced on 
any original s^^ecies of animals by an introduilion into other coun- 
tries, and remarks, that the Norway rat is the same in this coun- 
try as on the shores of the Baltic, and that the mouse-hunting 
powers of the cat are the same as in the tenth century, when the 
value of a cat was established bylaw in Wales, bvHocl the Good, 
to be equal to a ewe, her fleece and lamb, taken together; and 
the ass. as far as we know, is not a native of our island. Among 
birds also he notices that neither the pheasant, the common fowl, 
nor the turkey are ancient inhabitants of our soil, and yet no de- 
generation or decay is discovered in any of these; that the gipsey, 
originating in Hindostan or Malacca, preserves the distindlive 
marks of a separate variety of the human race in all latitudes and 
climates, and that the Finlander and the Laplander maintain their 
original charadleristic difference even on the same soil ; and with- 
out acidiiig other instances drawn from analogy, which he consi- 
ders superfluous, observes that, with regard to sheep, it is proved 
beyond contradiction, that the carding wool of our English breeds 
is not changed by long residence in the plains of Jamaica, and that 
there is no evidence of the wool of the Merino sheep having de- 
generated in Spain, where the race was certainly unknown in the 
time of the Emperor Trajan ; and though the breed is now dissemi- 
mated through a variety of countries, from New Holland, in the 
344h degree of southern latitude, to Sweden, 60 degrees north, 
and has been introduced into some of them more than forty years, 
yet the experience of English manufacturers has certified that the 
wool of all these different countries is not inferior to the best Spa- 
nish, and that the Spanish itself is the same as it was as far back 
as 1723. Hence he concludes there is no cause for apprehension 
of any deterioration from length of time in the wool of the pure 
Merino breed. 

With regard to the second point to be considered — the perma- 
nence of mixed breeds, he appeals to the well known and popular 
example, the race-horse. Britain, it is said, abounded in horses 
at the invasion of Julius Ca-sar, but they probably dlflered littl>; 
from the poney of Wales, or the galloway of Scotland; and though 



two centuries ago the breed was sufficiently increased in size and 
strength, yet it was not till the middle of the last century, that, 
on observation of the fleetness, wind, and strength, which were 
combined in the Turkish and Saracenic breeds, the eiTefl was tried 
of coupling males of these races with mares of our own country. 
Breeders continued for many years to cross the female descendants 
with pure males, till the actual acquirement of the excellencies 
which were sought for, rendered unnecessary all further inter- 
mixture of the pure blood. Yet in horses of this kind there is 
no degeneracy; they are, on the cojitrary, superior to the race 
from which they sprung, and in a constant state of improvement; 
for while the horses of the Arabs in their own country can scarce- 
ly trot or canter 8 or JO miles without being exhausted, there is 
hardly a race horse in England, that will not, with little fatigue, 
run 20 miles in an hour, almost at full speed. Dr. Parry is there- 
fore decidedly of opinion that this principle, which the experience 
of half a century has established, on the subjedl: of horses, will be 
found equally true on that of sheep. " Mr. Bakewell," he says, 
whom we must justly consider as one of the most enlightened of 
farmers, would have laughed to scorn any one who would have 
told him, that in order to preserve certain points of form or con- 
stitution in a breed, it was necessary to revert to animals posses- 
sing those points in a less degree than the sheep of his own flock; 
the observation of his whole life confirmed him in the truth of the 
contrary principle." That rule then, which holds good with re- 
gard to the carcase, may likewise be received as true with respect 
to the fleece. 

The Do(5lor then relates to the Society what he has learned 
from sixteen years experience, and the detail may be considered as 
a proof of the principles which he has advanced, and is far from 
leading to the conclusion that, when the fineness of the wool of a 
cross-bred ram is fully established, there is a necessity of recur- 
ring to the pure stock; having found no deterioration occur in a 
whole race of sheep after three or four generations bred in and 
in, but that the greater part of the progeny appeared to be in an 
improving state, he thinks we have no right to presume the con- 
trary from supposition only. The greatest stumbling-block ap- 
pears to him to have originated from observing a sort of gross 
connexion between the food and the quality of the fleece ; it was 
concluded that the fine herbage of the downs necessarily produced 
fine wool, and that none but coarse wool could spring from gross 
luxuriant food ; but neither of these conclusions is true, for the 
fineness of a sheep's fleece, of a given breed, is inversely as its fat- 



40 

ness, and the very same sheep may, at different times, according 
to these circumstances, have fleeces of all the intermediate quali- 
ties from extreme fineness to comparative coarseness. This is gi- 
ven as the true cause of the error, which has prevailed universally, 
that a Spanish sheep cut of Spain cannot yield a fine fleece ; but 
the falsity of this prepossession has been proved by experiment, 
and experience authorizes the decision that when a race of animals 
liave preserved their peculiar qualities for three or four descents, 
those qualities may by proper care be preserved to the latest gene- 
rations, and that those animals are best for breeding which possess 
those qualities in the highest degree, however they may be deno- 
minated, or from whatever country derived. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

The question respedling the fineness of wool degenerating after 
repeated crosses, without a fresh intermixture with the pure Meri- 
no blocd, may be considered as set at rest by Dr. Parry's argu- 
ments, confirmed by his experience; and no apprehensions of 
that kind need disturb the tranquillity of the breeder from the 
Merino-Ryeland race of sheep. 



On a Polled Merino Ram, &V. 

BY SIR GEORCiE STUART MACKENZIE. 

Dh-ksoii's .JgricuUural ^Mo^azine, J\o. 7. 

On a Ram of the Merino or Spanish Breed without Horns * 

BY A NORFOLK FARMER. 

Dickson s S'grlcuJlural Jifagazine, J\'o. 7. 

It having been doubted by a former correspondent of the Maga- 
zine, whether or not a ram of this breed ever existed without 
horns, Sir George Mackenzie relates, in the first of these papers, 
that he purchased one without horns from his Majesty's flock, 
which is a very fine animal of the kind ; and it is stated in the lat- 
ter, that Mr, Toilet of Staffordshire, produced one without horns 
at the Holkham sheep- shearing of 1806, which is believed to be 
still in the possession of Thomas William Coke, Esquire. 

* Retrospect, V. IV. p. 89. 



4i 



ON TPIE WOOL OF SPANISH SIIEEP. 

p,Y T . 

* Sick-soli's .'Ig'riculluraJ ^Ivgazine, J\'o. 12. 

AS the wools of Spain enjoy so distinguished a reputation, the 
writer conceives he shall give information to some readers by de- 
tailing the various sorts into which Spanish wool is divided. He 
states that the wool of the travelling flocks is divided into three 
classes; the first of these is called Segovian Leonese, because it is 
the produce of the flocks which feed in the neighbourhond of Se- 
govia, Madrid, &c. in Castile, and those of the kingdom of Leon, 
which pass the winter in Estraniadura ; the second class is knowa 
under the name of Soria, a town in Old Castile, and of Saragossa 
or Arragon, which province lies adjacent to the preceding one : 
the third class is the wool of Seville. 

The Segovia Leonese is distinguished by piles or heaps, com- 
posed of the wools of difterent flocks, of which the piles of Paular, 
or the Escurial, of Infantado, and Negrette (formerly that of the 
Jesuits) are the three most considerable ; by these the prices of 
the others are usually regulated. The second sort, or quality, is 
named Segovia, and its piles are denominated Marques, Avila, 
Armendes, Hospital of Burgos, &c. and this is inferior to the 
Leonese ; and the small Segovia is less fine, and is the medium 
between tho?e two kinds of wool. 

The Soria is inferior to the first kind ; the most noted flocks are 
those of Villa Real, Badillo, Naros, Castelfrio, &c. and this wool 
is seldom divided into piles. 

The different kinds are distinguished by the marks on the bales 
to which are added the initials of the different flocks. Most of 
the wools are white ; but Spain produces yellow, black, and 
brown wool, but this is not picked for exportation. Those wools 
are stated to be of the best sort, which are long, strong, soft, 
silky, finf , slender, and glossy, entirely divested of grease, well 
picked, without mixture and new; the last point is determined 
by the wool not having a rancid smell, which it contracts by age, 
and by its dilating or swelling speedily, when compressed in the 
hand : the strength and pliability are discovered by drawing it 
with the fore-finger and thumb of each hand ; if it be new, it will 
stretch, not easily be broken, but when it is, will sound neither 
* Retrospect, Y. lY. p. 254. 



42' 

dry nor sharp. The duty upon Spanish wool imported is given at 
two-pence halfpenny per pound, and the markets in January last, 
are quoted at — Seville, Sj-. W. to 5f. 3d. — Segovia, 6s. to 6s. 6d. — - 
Leonese, 6s. 6d. to 6s. 9d. per pound. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

This short account of the different v?ools of Spain is a valuable 
appendage to Dr. Parry's various publications on the subject of 
wool in the communications to the Board of Agriculture, and 
among the papers of the Bath Society, where these terms are fre- 
quently mentioned wifhout any explanation, to the great disap- 
pointment of the readers. But the mode of sorting, washing, and 
packing the wool of Spain, as well as the manner of conducting 
the sales, is much better explained in Dr. Parry's Essay, published 
by the Agricultural Board, than in this article. 



On the coarse Wool of a Spanish, or Merino Lamb. 

BY SIR GEORGE S. MACKENZIE, BART. 

* Dickson's Jlgricidtural JMagazine, JN'o. 10. 

Sir George Mackenzie, having communicated to the editor of 
the Magazine, a circumstance of a Spanish lamb having been 
dropped, with a covering more resembling hair than wool, ob- 
serves, that after a lapse of three months, the hair had entirely 
disappeared from the neck of the anim.al, and had given place to 
wool, but that the rest of the body continued as before. Having 
had a second lamb dropped in the same hairy state, though got 
by a verv fine ram, he expresses his conviction that the second 
fleeces of these lambs will be perfedt wool, notwithstanding the 
deviation in the first fleece. The remainder of the paper con- 
tains only miscellaneous observations, which have no relation to 
the subjeCl:. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

The removing the suspence into which the worthy Baronet had 
fallen, respedling the future fleece of his hairy Merino lamb, may 
prevent uneasiness to other breeders, who may chance to have 
lambs dropped in the same predicament. The occurrence is not 
peculiar to the Merino breed, but sometimes happens in other 
kinds nearly allied to it, and most commonly in flocks which ex- 
perience hard keeping during the winter, though by no means 
exclusively so. 

* Retrospect, V. IV. p. 148. 



43 



EXPERIMENTS 
REGARDING THE IMPROVEMENT 

OF 

THE FINE-WOOLLED BREED OF SHEEP 

IN THIS KINGDOM ; 
IN A LETTER TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, BART. 
EY EDWARD SHEPPARD, Esc^. of Uley, Gloucestershire. 
* Commwiicaiions to the Board of .Agriculture, Vol. FI. Ft. I. 



THIS gentleman, being anxious to ascertain to what degree 
of perfedion wool might be brought in this country by means of 
the Spanish cross on fine-wooiled English sheep; and wishing to 
be satisfied whether, under the common circumstances of the hus- 
bandry of the country, such wool would retain its fineness: and 
from being at the same time largely engaged in the manufadure 
of superfine cloth, and in the pradlice of buying and working up 
considerable quantities of Spanish wool yearly, conceiving himself 
entitled to form with some accuracy an estimate of the relative 
quality and value of such wools as might be produced in this 
country m competition with the wools of Spain, he determined 
upon commencing a series of experiments; and with this view 

Lord Bathurst s, which had been obtained from the King's Merino 
tiock. In the produce of the first cross he found a considerable 
improvenient of the wool, which so much resembled Spanish, that 
It might be considered as approaching half-way ; the weight of the 
fleece was also increased one-half ; of this iool he prierved a 

inTthr.?"'"' f ^" '\' ^°i^°"'"^ 5^^^'- (^ ^«^)' ^'^ obtained a ram 
fofivP ..'pT '^/ ^^'"S's flock, and purchased from four 

InT RnT K '^''P^'^'"'^" best Herefordshire flocks: in 1803 
ana 1804, he also purchased a considerable number of a reputed 

* Retrospect, V. IV. p, 35H. 



44. 

Spanish flock in Herefordshire, from a Mr. Ridgeway, who had 
been many years in possession of part of His Majesty's sheep, on 
which he had engrafted his own Ryeland flock, but the produce 
was a mixed and unequal breed ; he hkewise availed himself of 
other opportunities of purchasing sheep of the same breed to such 
an extent, that, in 1S05, he was enabled from the increase of his 
flock to dispose of all his Ryeland ewes , and at this year's shear- 
ing, the average weight of his fleeces washed on the sheep's backs 
was 2Albs. 

In 1806, his Spanish and mixed flocks amoujned to 986, ex- 
clusive of lambs, and the average v/eigbt of his lleeces was 31bs. 
washed as above ; the value of the mixed wool being 4j. 6iJ. and 
of the Spanish 6s. Aid. per lb. while the price of Spanish wool im- 
ported was at 6s. 9d. 

He found it exoedient to wash the wool on the siieep's backs in 
the common mode ot this country, because the dirtier part of the 
fleece near the surface, 'was considerably cleansed thereby, though 
the wool is too closely compared to admit of much impression in 
the grease at the root of the fibre, which, however, yields easily 
to the common process of the manufacturer ; for, in proportion 
as the cress from the English approaches the Spanish breed, it 
acquires the same property of yolk. And it is stated, that the 
shearing is much facilitated by the wool being washed on the back 
of the animal-, besides, the attempt to wash the wool after it has 
been shorn, as is the praflice in Spain, would be attended with ma- 
ny difiiculties to the grower, and be very disadvantageous to the 
manufacturer, as in the process of scowering the wool would be 
much injured by the soiling of the liquor used in the operation ; 
he conceives also the wool washed from the sheep's backs is in 
the most merchantable state, since it is sufficiently free from ex- 
cessive grease to enable the manufafturer to judge of its probable 
waste, which experience will soon teach-, while the attempt to 
produce the wool scowered clean, would be much more objeClion- 
able; because, from the inexperience of the party, it would most 
probably be injured in its softness and quality. His lambs he has 
not sheared, because he found them meet the winter better with 
their coats on, and the produce of wool was greater at the next 
shearing. 

The first refleclion which occurred to Mr. Sheppard, on the 
adoption of these sheep, was, whether it is likely to be advanta- 
geous to the community, and he is decidedly of opinion, that a ju- 
dicious culture of fine wool must be produdtive of the greatest be- 



45 

nefit to the agricultural, as well as to the commercial interests &f 
the country; since, in the variety of soil and situation which Eng- 
land affords, there are many districts where this breed of sheep 
might be cultivated with success, to the exclusion of the wretched 
and unprofitable flocks, which are now depastured there, for he 
thinks there is not a breed of clothing-wooUed sheep in England, 
which would not produce a fleece frum four or five repeated cros- 
ses with the Spanish, worth at least four shillings the pound, 
washed on the sheep's backs ; and consequently it must be to the 
interest both of the farmer and the community, that poor and, 
mountainous trails of land should be applied to the growth of this 
sort of sheep ; but a different opinion is acknowledged with re- 
spetSt to the rich and highly-cultivated parts of the kingdom. 

The comparison of four years' successive produce from the 
same sheep, has satisfied him, that without extraordinary care to 
guard against the efl^efts of climate, and a stri6l abstinence from 
the more nutritious and succulent kinds of food, the wool of the 
mixed breeds will materially deqenerare. At the time of writing, 
he had before him samples of the v^^ool of his first crosses from 
Lord Bathurst's ram in 1802, and the wool from the same sheep 
in 1806, and he found the quality so much degenerated in the 
course of that time, that he conceived the lapse of another equal 
period, would reduce it to the coarseness of the maternal stock; 
at the same time he observes, that this is the first cross from the 
Spanish, which he does not consider as possessing equal preven- 
tives with those of higher blood against the causes of degeneracy. 
He has also found the wool of His Majesty's ram much degenera- 
ted by a comparison of the wool of 18U3 with that of ISOG, which 
is attributed to his being kept in the best pastures in the summer, 
and fed with corn in the winter, and being worked very hard; but 
the same depreciation has not been found in the females, which 
have not been kept in such high condition. It is remarked that 
in the pure Spanish there is a wonderful capacity for resisting the 
effects of climate on the quality of the wool, for the great exuda- 
tion from the body of the animal, yields a yolky consistence at the 
interior of the fleece, which by its mixture with the soil forms a 
kind of coat of mail on the surface almost impervious to wet, and 
protects the sheep exceedingly from the injuries of climate ; and 
the same quality attends the mixed breed in the proportion of its 
approximation to the Spanish. The faft of deterioration, how- 
ever, under the common circumstances of the husbandry of th^ 
Gcuntrv, is not deemed as affording cause in any serious degree, to 
F 



46 

affeftthe value of fine-woolled sheep, for the preventive is always 
at hand — a frequent recurrence to the Spanish ram, which will, at 
all tiaies, remedy the evil. It is thought to be very pradlicable to 
grow wool of the value of 5s. 6d. per pound, while Spanish wool 
reaches 6s. 9d. ; by which means we should rival two-thirds of the 
import from Spain ; but in order to keep up the means of perpe- 
tuating the fine-wooled mixed breed, and of supplying the growers 
with the pure blood, there should be a flock of the real Spanish 
race carefully preserved from mixture, and protected from dege- 
neracy ; and the writer considers the flock now in His Majesty's 
possession, as eminently fitted for the purpose, and is satisfied that 
a breed of sheep as pure as those are, with stridl caution both to 
the nature of their food, and to their complete prote<Stion from 
the effedls of cliniate, would remain for a century in the same 
state of fineness and perfection ; the circumstance having been 
proved by experiment, for the mixed breed in Saxony, which was 
first introduced in 1714, has, with these precautions, retained the 
greatest possible degree of fineness up to the present time ; and 
the best wools from that country equal in smallness of fibre, and 
exceed in softness of feel, the finest wools of Spain, and are ea- 
gerly purchased at higher prices by the manufacturers of this 
country ; and as the mixed breed of English and Spanish partakes 
very much of the soft and silky feel of the Saxon wool, he has no 
doubt but that it might be brought to the same degree of fineness, 
if the same attention be given to its culture; he is, however, dis- 
posed tiy attribute much of the softness perceptible in Saxon and 
Anglo Spanish wools, to the management in washing on the 
sheep's backs, and sufi^ering the wool to remain a long time in its 
native grease ; whereas, in Spain, the wool being washed with both 
hot and cold water after being shorn, the grease is, in a great de- 
gree, discharged, and it is besides compressed so closely in the 
packages, that when opened in this country, it is so hard, as he- 
quentlyto make it difficult to divide the flakes. 

Mr. Sheppard observes, that though M. de Lasteyrie, and other 
modern writers on Spanish sheep, have asserted, that the quality 
of the wool does not depend upon the nature of the pasturage ; he 
himself is of opinion, that they are neither borne out by fads, nor 
by sound reason ; he admits, that as far as being essential to the 
health of the animal, nutritive pastures are necessary to the pro- 
duction of good and healthy wool, having frequently remarked 
that the wool of a half-starved sheep is void of proof in the ma- 
nufacture; but is convinced that, when the animal is kept high, 



47 

and pushes forward in its growth by nutritious food, the fibre en- 
larges with the other parts of the frame, and that an increased 
weight of wool so produced, is attended with a deterioration in 
quality. As an instance of this, the wool of the Real-Paular flock 
is noticed, which was purchased a few years since by the Prince 
of the Peace at a very high price, on account of some privileges of 
pasturage exclusively belonging to it, such as a priority of feeding 
in the finest pastures in its way to the mountains ; the sheep of 
this flock, from the advantages of pasturage, are represented by 
persons conversant with the flocks of Spain, to be large and hand- 
some, but the wool of this pile is known to the manufafturers here, 
as broad and coarse in hair, in comparison with other fine Leone- 
sa piles ; and this deterioration of the wool is attributed to an ha- 
bitual indulgence in more luxurious food ; for it was in the high- 
est estimation in this country fifty years, and cloth then made 
from it was so marked to denote its superiority. Though it is 
allowed that Lasteyrie has communicated much pleasing and use- 
ful information, yet no great weight is attached to his observations 
on the subject of depreciation, since he asserts that the fineness 
of the wool is not at all owing to pasturage, soil, or climate, and 
that the richer and more succulent pastures increase the fineness 
of the wool, and that dry herbage contributes to its coarseness : 
the assertion that the wool of the Spanish flocks at Rambouillet, 
in France, is increased in length, without being depreciated in 
fineness, is received with much doubt by this writer, as contrary 
to all the experience he has had in wool. 

In concluding this communication, Mr. Sheppard says, " I do 
not assert that it is impradlicable to produce and to preserve in 
England wool equal to the finest quality in Spain, with the same 
management as is pra£tised in countries under climates somewhat 
similar, but, that where land is so valuable, and where a regular 
course of husbandry is adopted on a comprehensive scale as with 
us, I do not think such management can be looked for ; but in 
many distri£ls of less fertile land in this kingdom, I am convin- 
ced, the farmers, from three or four successive crosses with the 
Spaniard, would obtain fleeces worth from lOj-. to 1 5s. each, from 
almost any sort of short-wooUed sheep ;" and the Ryeland is re- 
commended in preference to the South-down breed to those who 
can afford to choose their flock for this purpose, because the finest 
hair of the South-down bears no proportion in point of softness to 
that of the Ryeland. It is observed also, that the produce of a 
cross with the Spaniard are neither less healthy nor more subject 



4» 

to diseases than other sheep; but srnce they are tender as lambs, 
the ewes should yean as late as the month of March, and as the 
lambs fall very naked, they should be sheltered from bleak and 
exposed situations; they are said to keep themselves in good order 
upon bare pastures, and to stand goin^ to fold as well as the South- 
down. This gentleman also found them fatten very handsomely; 
he sold half a score six-tooth wethers of the first cross, which ave- 
raged 1 91bs. per quarter, and he readily obtained a penny per 
pound more than the market price, on account of the beauty of 
the meat, and its great fatness, and quotes the testimony both of 
amateurs and adversaries, to the mildness and excellency of the 
mutton* 



OBSERVATIONS. 

The gold medal of the Board of Agriculture was voted for this 
communication of Mr. Sheppard, who as an agriculturist, and at 
the same time a manufadlurer of experience, must be, in every re- 
speft, competent to judge of ihe expediency of introducing the Me- 
rino R) eland generally into this country. Full as is the Essay of 
Dr. Parry on this subject, additional information on important prac- 
tical points may be collo£led from this communication. The in- 
formation contained in it, which is now given to the public for the 
first time as the result of experiment, is the certainty of dege- 
neracy in a mixed breed, removed only one cross from the Spa- 
nish ; and when the means of Information which this writer pos- 
sesses are taken ituo the account, tliis opinion, that the wool will 
degenerate to its former maternal state in eight years after the use 
of the Spanish ram, may be very safely relied on. His suggestions 
respecting the improvement of Anglo Spanish wool to such a de- 
gree of fineness as may be readily obtained without causing any 
change in the regular agricultural systems of the country, instead 
of aiming universally at extreme perfection, is evidence of a sound 
mind and enlightened understanding. As an extensive manu- 
facturer of fine cloths, he knows how few pieces are made entirely 
of Spanish wool, without some admixture Oi British to facilitate the 
working ; and it is easy to discover it to be his opinion, that na- 
tive wool, rather inferior in fineness, may make as good an article 
of cloth, in consequence of ihe superior silkiness and softness ob- 
tained by washing the wool en the sheep's backs. 



49 



AN ACCOUNT OF TPIE MANUFACTURE 



TWO PIECES OF NAVY BLUE BROAD CLOTH 

FOR THE PREMIUM 01^ THE SOCIETY, 

Yi'ltli the Report of the Committee, and a Letter from Dr. Parry, containing 
fvirthei' Observations on his Wool.-^* Bath Society's Papers, Vol. If. 



THESE two pieces of cloth were manufadlured by Messrs. 
Yeats and Son, of Monks-mill, near Wooton-under-Edge ; one of 
them being made from wool grown in England by Dr. Parry on 
Merino- Ryeland sheep, and the other from prime Leonesa Span- 
ish wool of the coronet pile. The weight of Dr. Parry's wool, in 
every different state, is given in a table in the account, and the 
weight of the wool manufactured, when dyed blue and picked, 
was 42 lb. 8 oz. : an equal weight of the coronet pile of Spanish 
was taken from the picker, and the same people were employed on 
both the cloths from beginning to end; they were made with yarn 
of the same size, were wove by the same weaver, set the same 
breadth in the loom -, and in every part of the manufacture the 
same attention and work were given to each. The British wool, 
though not so well scoured, held better in the spinning than the 
Spanish ; and when the two cloths were taken off the loom, there 
was the difference of only six ounces in weight, Dr. Parry's cloth 
weighing 44 lb. 6 oz., and the counter piece made with the coro- 
net exactly 44 lb.; but when they were simply scoured out of the 
grease, the British cloth weighed 351b. 8 oz. and the coronet 381b. 
which gives 2 lb. 14 oz. more yolk left in the British than in the 
Spanish wool. The length of Dr. Parry's cloth made with 41 lb. 
3 oz. of stuff was 26 yards and 12 nails ; and the length of the 
coronet made with 44 lb. of stuff was 27 yards and 6 nails ; from 
which it appears that 41 lb. 8oz. of British wool have made the 

* Retiospect, V. IV. p, 245. 



50 

same quantity of cloth, within ten nails, as 441b. of Spanish wool; 
and Messrs. Yeats and Son do not scruple to say, that in their opi- 
nion as manufacturers, the cloth made with the Bristish wool, and 
marked with Dr. Parry's name, is decidedly of the finest quality. 

The Committee of the Society appointed to examine cloth and 
wool at their annual meeting in 1806, minutely inspefted the 
comparative quality of these two pieces of cloth in conjundlion 
with several woollen drapers of the city of Bath, and adjudged 
that Dr. Parry's cloth was entitled to a preference in respecl to 
fineness of wool to the Spanish ; they examined also a piece of blue 
cloth manufactured by Mr. Joyce, from Lord Somerville's wool, 
which they declared to be equal in every respeCt to the generality 
of cloths made with the best wool imported from Spain ; and they 
were decidedly of opinion, " that Dr. Parry had by his zeal, dili- 
j^ence, perseverence, and activity, accomplished the grand objedt of 
produing in the soil and climate of Britain, wool equal to that 
usually imported from Spain ; and that in so doing he merits 
the warmest thanks of the country in general, and of the society 
in particular." 

The Doctor, in a letter to the Society, informs them, that the 
wool manufactured for the prize cloth by Messrs. Yeats consisted 
of ewes' fleeces from his own flock, descended from Ryeland ewes 
crossed with the rams of the King and Lord Somerville to the 
fourth generation, and he has no doubt but that the cloth would 
have been finer, but for the ignorance of the wool-sorter, who 
mixed with the finest several pieces of a coarser kind. He avails 
himself of the same opportunity of declining the premium, perfect- 
ly satisfied with the concurrence of the Committee and the manu- 
facturers in the superior fineness of his cloth ; and takes leave to 
state to the Society, that the sheep producing these fleeces were 
kept in excellent order for a full year before shearing, having been 
fed in the respective seasons, not only with grass and hay, but with 
vetches, clover, cabbages, potatoes, linseed, and oil-cake, observ- 
ing that some judgment may be formed as to their state of health, 
when it is known that three only out of one hundred and two died 
from the time of ramming in September to shearing in the suc- 
ceeding June, and two of these were killed by scouring from gor»- 
ging themselves with boiled potatoes mixed with salt. 



Z'l 



OBSERVATIONS. 

By the statement given in this paper (and there are other occur- 
rences within our knowledge to the same purport) the fadt appears 
to be established beyond a doubt, that cloth may be manufadlured 
from our native wool fully equal in fineness and durability to the 
cloth made from the very best wools of Spain : and the proof of this 
faft is chiefly owing to the discrimination and perseverance of the 
King in importing Spanish rams ; for though the finest wool has , 
not been produced by His Majesty, yet the facilities he has afford- 
ed to others of obtaining crosses from the Merino breed of sheep 
have enabled most of our agriculturists, who have turned their at- 
tention to that point, to commence the experiments which have 
led to so fortunate a result. The value of fine British wool, par- 
ticularly the Merino- Ryeland, is now fully admitted by our manu- 
facturers, and Dr. Parry and Lord Somerville have performed an 
acceptable service to their country in having their own wool manu- 
faflured in counter pieces to cloth made from Spanish wool, for 
without this positive demonstration, the trader would scarcely have 
been induced to believe what it was his interest to discredit ; for so 
long as he could purchase the finest British wool at a lower price 
and mix it with the Spanish, his profits must have been considera- 
bly enhanced. Dr. Parry, in his Essay on the Merino race of sheep 
and theMerino-Ryelands, which was published in the Communi- 
cations to the Board of Agriculture, and which has been noticed 
in the preceding part of this volume, complains that the difl!iculty 
of sale of the finest wool is among the principal impediments to its 
more extended growth. As friends to the siap/e manufaclure of our 
own country, we have much satisfa6lion in announcing that the 
evil complained of by Dr. Parry has been since, in a great degree, 
removed, and chiefly by the exertions of Lord Somerville ; for Mr. 
Sadler, at his repository near Smithfield, has established an annual 
sale by au6lion solely for Spanish and Merino-Ryeland wool grown 
in Great Britain. The sale in the summer, which was the first, 
was well attended by manufacfturers, the wool obtained higher 
prices than had been before given, and the manufacturers pledged 
themselves to attend and support the undertaking at the next pe- 
riodical return of the sale of wool. 



iy\ 



WITH respect to tile Merino lambs, iVniffl'are very hzity whea 
dropped, and m^^ lil^e.a gaat than any rlifn^gitof the sheep kind, 
the writer asserK f]t;tSi| nis.owo experienc?, riiit they will Ijecome 
as fine woolled in tiw lbllo'»|i'hg year as if thtj'l'ihad been'dVopped 
more woolly, and will prodbpe a progeny eqiiSpm' perfe<fl:. 



The above fact by dTTrt-pA-JKr' tf>ir-T^T>n;rlrc;nn'j ^jtoi-if^iStU*..,! ^T.p-4-/«n.. \,i 

13., is well calculated td ro^v*? :ip[<^ehcnsiQiu> {^(HpH k'^ feyife i^' youii^- ^w,, 

ijicxperiencfcl bi'ctdi^rs. Ed. pfnrjaS^Sini .> - ■"*'^' 

X 




^ The observations in the preceding pages,' in conjunfllc.i 
with those of Mr. Livinjjston and those of Dr. Mease recently 
published in the first number of his excellent work, entitled "Ar- 
chives of Useful Knowledge," are deemed sufficient to establish 
the importance of the Merino breed of Sheep crossed on our own 

native flocks And whilst the Editor warmly wishes the fuilert 

success to thoso who have thus by their exertions conferred so 

valuable a benefit on our country he ardently hopes, that no ig-i- 

pediment may arise to its extensive diffusion, by unnecessarily 
aQgmenting the prices of either the sheep themselves, nor th? 
cloth manufactured from their fleeces-, which, by concentring th*? 
busiiiess in the hands of a few capitalists, must eventually tcTid to 
depress the a«rtivity of the community at large. 



Retrospect, \. IV, 



